diff --git a/reg-tests/cache/vary.vtc b/reg-tests/cache/vary.vtc
index 0b5d139..512ff3a 100644
--- a/reg-tests/cache/vary.vtc
+++ b/reg-tests/cache/vary.vtc
@@ -108,7 +108,18 @@
                -hdr "Content-Encoding: gzip" \
               -bodylen 188
 
+       rxreq
+       expect req.url == "/empty-vs-missing"
+       txresp -hdr "Content-Encoding: gzip" \
+               -hdr "Vary: accept-encoding" \
+               -hdr "Cache-Control: max-age=5" \
+               -bodylen 234
 
+       rxreq
+       expect req.url == "/empty-vs-missing"
+       txresp -hdr "Vary: accept-encoding" \
+               -hdr "Cache-Control: max-age=5" \
+               -bodylen 256
 } -start
 
 server s2 {
@@ -345,6 +356,42 @@
        expect resp.bodylen == 188
        expect resp.http.X-Cache-Hit == 0
 
+       # A missing 'Accept-Encoding' implies that anything is acceptable,
+       # while an empty 'Accept-Encoding' implies nothing is acceptable.
+
+       # Start by caching a gzip response.
+       txreq -url "/empty-vs-missing" -hdr "Accept-Encoding: gzip"
+       rxresp
+       expect resp.status == 200
+       expect resp.bodylen == 234
+       expect resp.http.content-encoding == "gzip"
+       expect resp.http.X-Cache-Hit == 0
+
+       # Check that it is cached.
+       txreq -url "/empty-vs-missing" -hdr "Accept-Encoding: gzip"
+       rxresp
+       expect resp.status == 200
+       expect resp.bodylen == 234
+       expect resp.http.content-encoding == "gzip"
+       expect resp.http.X-Cache-Hit == 1
+
+       # Check that the cached response is returned when no accept-encoding is
+       # specified.
+       txreq -url "/empty-vs-missing"
+       rxresp
+       expect resp.status == 200
+       expect resp.bodylen == 234
+       expect resp.http.content-encoding == "gzip"
+       expect resp.http.X-Cache-Hit == 1
+
+       # Check that the cached response is not returned when an empty
+       # accept-encoding is specified.
+       txreq -url "/empty-vs-missing" -hdr "Accept-Encoding:"
+       rxresp
+       expect resp.status == 200
+       expect resp.bodylen == 256
+       expect resp.http.content-encoding == "<undef>"
+       expect resp.http.X-Cache-Hit == 0
 
        # The following requests are treated by a backend that does not cache
        # responses containing a Vary header
diff --git a/src/cache.c b/src/cache.c
index bdb8258..feab63f 100644
--- a/src/cache.c
+++ b/src/cache.c
@@ -2280,6 +2280,19 @@
 	/* Iterate over all the ACCEPT_ENCODING_MAX_ENTRIES first accept-encoding
 	 * values that might span acrosse multiple accept-encoding headers. */
 	while (http_find_header(htx, hdr_name, &ctx, 0) && count < ACCEPT_ENCODING_MAX_ENTRIES) {
+		count++;
+
+		/* As per RFC7231#5.3.4, "An Accept-Encoding header field with a
+		 * combined field-value that is empty implies that the user agent
+		 * does not want any content-coding in response."
+		 *
+		 * We must (and did) count the existence of this empty header to not
+		 * hit the `count == 0` case below, but must ignore the value to not
+		 * include VARY_ENCODING_OTHER into the final bitmap.
+		 */
+		if (istlen(ctx.value) == 0)
+			continue;
+
 		/* Turn accept-encoding value to lower case */
 		ist2bin_lc(istptr(ctx.value), ctx.value);
 
@@ -2294,8 +2307,6 @@
 			/* Unknown encoding */
 			encoding_bitmap |= VARY_ENCODING_OTHER;
 		}
-
-		count++;
 	}
 
 	/* If a "*" was found in the accepted encodings (without a null weight),