diff --git a/github/repos_contents.go b/github/repos_contents.go
index 431d4b12dc..be58fd52f6 100644
--- a/github/repos_contents.go
+++ b/github/repos_contents.go
@@ -317,5 +317,9 @@ func (s *RepositoriesService) GetArchiveLink(ctx context.Context, owner, repo st
 	}
 
 	parsedURL, err := url.Parse(resp.Header.Get("Location"))
-	return parsedURL, newResponse(resp), err
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, newResponse(resp), err
+	}
+
+	return parsedURL, newResponse(resp), nil
 }
diff --git a/github/repos_contents_test.go b/github/repos_contents_test.go
index e0465e93d0..1cfa100df3 100644
--- a/github/repos_contents_test.go
+++ b/github/repos_contents_test.go
@@ -744,6 +744,23 @@ func TestRepositoriesService_GetArchiveLink_StatusMovedPermanently_followRedirec
 	}
 }
 
+func TestRepositoriesService_GetArchiveLink_invalidLocationHeader(t *testing.T) {
+	client, mux, _, teardown := setup()
+	defer teardown()
+
+	mux.HandleFunc("/repos/o/r/tarball", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		testMethod(t, r, "GET")
+		ctlChar := 0x7f
+		badURL := "https://google.com" + string(byte(ctlChar))
+		w.Header().Add("Location", badURL)
+		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusFound)
+	})
+
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	_, _, err := client.Repositories.GetArchiveLink(ctx, "o", "r", Tarball, &RepositoryContentGetOptions{}, false)
+	testURLParseError(t, err)
+}
+
 func TestRepositoriesService_GetContents_NoTrailingSlashInDirectoryApiPath(t *testing.T) {
 	client, mux, _, teardown := setup()
 	defer teardown()