diff --git a/setuptools/_importlib.py b/setuptools/_importlib.py
index 5317be0fa0..0e803565b6 100644
--- a/setuptools/_importlib.py
+++ b/setuptools/_importlib.py
@@ -10,3 +10,10 @@
     import importlib_resources as resources  # pragma: no cover
 else:
     import importlib.resources as resources  # noqa: F401
+
+
+if not hasattr(metadata, "EntryPoints"):  # pragma: no cover
+    raise ImportError(
+        "`importlib-metadata` version is incompatible with `setuptools`. "
+        "Please install importlib-metadata>=4.6"  # Equivalent to stdlib's in 3.10
+    )