diff --git a/changelog.d/2628.change.rst b/changelog.d/2628.change.rst
index a7af513bcf..53619f89c8 100644
--- a/changelog.d/2628.change.rst
+++ b/changelog.d/2628.change.rst
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
-Write long description in message payload of PKG-INFO file.
-Changed in metadata version 2.1 - by :user:`cdce8p`
+Write long description in message payload of PKG-INFO file. - by :user:`cdce8p`
diff --git a/setuptools/dist.py b/setuptools/dist.py
index 961b3cbde0..bf3b9461b8 100644
--- a/setuptools/dist.py
+++ b/setuptools/dist.py
@@ -185,10 +185,6 @@ def write_field(key, value):
     for project_url in self.project_urls.items():
         write_field('Project-URL', '%s, %s' % project_url)
 
-    if version < StrictVersion('2.1'):
-        long_desc = rfc822_escape(self.get_long_description())
-        write_field('Description', long_desc)
-
     keywords = ','.join(self.get_keywords())
     if keywords:
         write_field('Keywords', keywords)
@@ -217,8 +213,7 @@ def write_field(key, value):
         for extra in self.provides_extras:
             write_field('Provides-Extra', extra)
 
-    if version >= StrictVersion('2.1'):
-        file.write("\n%s\n\n" % self.get_long_description())
+    file.write("\n%s\n\n" % self.get_long_description())
 
 
 sequence = tuple, list
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/test_dist.py b/setuptools/tests/test_dist.py
index 6378caeff1..c4279f0bc4 100644
--- a/setuptools/tests/test_dist.py
+++ b/setuptools/tests/test_dist.py
@@ -251,8 +251,8 @@ def test_maintainer_author(name, attrs, tmpdir):
     with io.open(str(fn.join('PKG-INFO')), 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
         raw_pkg_lines = f.readlines()
 
-    # Drop blank lines
-    pkg_lines = list(filter(None, raw_pkg_lines))
+    # Drop blank lines and strip lines from default description
+    pkg_lines = list(filter(None, raw_pkg_lines[:-2]))
 
     pkg_lines_set = set(pkg_lines)
 
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/test_egg_info.py b/setuptools/tests/test_egg_info.py
index 22e970a4bd..d7657a47ff 100644
--- a/setuptools/tests/test_egg_info.py
+++ b/setuptools/tests/test_egg_info.py
@@ -893,8 +893,8 @@ def test_long_description(self, tmpdir_cwd, env):
         with open(os.path.join(egg_info_dir, 'PKG-INFO')) as pkginfo_file:
             pkg_info_lines = pkginfo_file.read().split('\n')
         assert 'Metadata-Version: 2.1' in pkg_info_lines
-        assert '' == pkg_info_lines[-1]
-        long_desc_lines = pkg_info_lines[8:]
+        assert '' == pkg_info_lines[-1]  # last line should be empty
+        long_desc_lines = pkg_info_lines[pkg_info_lines.index(''):]
         assert 'This is a long description' in long_desc_lines
         assert 'over multiple lines' in long_desc_lines