diff --git a/packages/request/lib/request.js b/packages/request/lib/request.js
index c254eae94..e53555cb1 100644
--- a/packages/request/lib/request.js
+++ b/packages/request/lib/request.js
@@ -34,7 +34,11 @@ module.exports = async function request(url, options = {}) {
         // DNS cache lookup has already been configured.
     }
 
-    if (_.isEmpty(url) || !validator.isURL(url)) {
+    const isUrlValid =
+        typeof url === 'string' &&
+        // `validator.isURL` doesn't let us express "any TLD or localhost", so we do two checks.
+        (validator.isURL(url) || validator.isURL(url, { host_whitelist: ['localhost'] }));
+    if (!isUrlValid) {
         return Promise.reject(
             new errors.InternalServerError({
                 message: 'URL empty or invalid.',
diff --git a/packages/request/test/request.test.js b/packages/request/test/request.test.js
index 957f1be35..eaf5f5874 100644
--- a/packages/request/test/request.test.js
+++ b/packages/request/test/request.test.js
@@ -120,6 +120,35 @@ describe('Request', function () {
         );
     });
 
+    it('[failure] rejects URL longer than 2084 characters', function () {
+        const url = `http://example.com/${'a'.repeat(2066)}`;
+
+        assert.equal(url.length, 2085);
+
+        return assert.rejects(request(url), {
+            message: 'URL empty or invalid.',
+        });
+    });
+
+    ['http://example.com/white space', 'http://example.com/<tag>'].forEach((url) => {
+        it(`[failure] rejects URL containing invalid characters: ${url}`, function () {
+            return assert.rejects(request(url), {
+                message: 'URL empty or invalid.',
+            });
+        });
+    });
+
+    it('[success] allows localhost URL', function () {
+        const url = 'http://localhost:2368/endpoint/';
+        const requestMock = nock('http://localhost:2368')
+            .get('/endpoint/')
+            .reply(200, 'Response body');
+
+        return request(url).then(function () {
+            assert.equal(requestMock.isDone(), true);
+        });
+    });
+
     it('[failure] can handle empty url', function () {
         const url = '';
         const options = {