diff --git a/R/fromJSON.R b/R/fromJSON.R
index 768bed92..6185be8f 100644
--- a/R/fromJSON.R
+++ b/R/fromJSON.R
@@ -77,6 +77,8 @@
 fromJSON <- function(txt, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = simplifyVector,
   simplifyMatrix = simplifyVector, flatten = FALSE, ...) {
 
+  # empty JSON -> empty data.frame
+  if (is.na(txt) || is.null(txt)) return(data.frame(NULL))
   # check type
   if (!is.character(txt) && !inherits(txt, "connection")) {
     stop("Argument 'txt' must be a JSON string, URL or file.")