diff --git a/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser.rb b/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser.rb
index e714923c4d8226aa1834e51912f959d60e97e383..5957cbbad7e02c124c9134359c0e79843a60f0e8 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser.rb
@@ -18,10 +18,6 @@ module Gitlab
         # [jneen] not using /\s+$/ here because that deletes empty lines
         body = body.gsub(/[ \t]$/, '')
 
-        # TODO [jneen]: do we want to allow empty-quoting? (replies only containing a blockquote)
-        # EmailReplyTrimmer allows this as a special case, so we detect it manually here.
-        return "" if body.lines.all? { |l| l.strip.empty? || l.start_with?('>') }
-
         body.force_encoding(encoding).encode("UTF-8")
       end
 
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/emails/no_content_reply.eml b/spec/fixtures/emails/empty_quote.eml
similarity index 100%
rename from spec/fixtures/emails/no_content_reply.eml
rename to spec/fixtures/emails/empty_quote.eml
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser_spec.rb
index 28698e89c338cee596d73e3cb9ddebc370c9b3cd..138ad814262689b0264b1d7e202d7df835696fd7 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/email/reply_parser_spec.rb
@@ -15,8 +15,23 @@ describe Gitlab::Email::ReplyParser, lib: true do
       expect(test_parse_body("asdf" * 30)).to eq("")
     end
 
-    it "returns an empty string if there is no reply content" do
-      expect(test_parse_body(fixture_file("emails/no_content_reply.eml"))).to eq("")
+    it "returns the quote for an empty-quoted comment" do
+      expect(test_parse_body(fixture_file("emails/empty_quote.eml")))
+        .to eq(<<-BODY.strip_heredoc.chomp)
+         >
+         >
+         >
+         > eviltrout posted in 'Adventure Time Sux' on Discourse Meta:
+         >
+         > ---
+         > hey guys everyone knows adventure time sucks!
+         >
+         > ---
+         > Please visit this link to respond: http://localhost:3000/t/adventure-time-sux/1234/3
+         >
+         > To unsubscribe from these emails, visit your [user preferences](http://localhost:3000/user_preferences).
+         >
+       BODY
     end
 
     it "properly renders plaintext-only email" do