diff --git a/CCDB/src/CcdbApi.cxx b/CCDB/src/CcdbApi.cxx
index c9d2fad882aa1..1836716688867 100644
--- a/CCDB/src/CcdbApi.cxx
+++ b/CCDB/src/CcdbApi.cxx
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ void CcdbApi::curlInit()
 
 void CcdbApi::init(std::string const& host)
 {
+  if (host.empty()) {
+    throw std::invalid_argument("Empty url passed CcdbApi, cannot initialize. Aborting.");
+  }
+
   // if host is prefixed with "file://" this is a local snapshot
   // in this case we init the API in snapshot (readonly) mode
   constexpr const char* SNAPSHOTPREFIX = "file://";
diff --git a/CCDB/test/testCcdbApi.cxx b/CCDB/test/testCcdbApi.cxx
index c834f2f30f64a..6572a6dcba462 100644
--- a/CCDB/test/testCcdbApi.cxx
+++ b/CCDB/test/testCcdbApi.cxx
@@ -589,4 +589,11 @@ BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(vectored)
   for (auto context : contexts) {
     BOOST_CHECK(context.dest.size() != 0);
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(empty_url)
+{
+  CcdbApi api;
+  string url = "";
+  BOOST_CHECK_EXCEPTION(api.init(url), invalid_argument, [](std::invalid_argument const&) -> bool { return true; });
+}