diff --git a/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/testing/sanity/empty-init.rst b/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/testing/sanity/empty-init.rst
index 198380d980..391fdf67a8 100644
--- a/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/testing/sanity/empty-init.rst
+++ b/docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/testing/sanity/empty-init.rst
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 Sanity Tests » empty-init
 =========================
 
-The ``__init__.py`` files under the following directories must be empty:
+The ``__init__.py`` files under the following directories must be empty.  For some of these (modules
+and tests), ``__init__.py`` files with code won't be used.  For others (module_utils), we want the
+possibility of using Python namespaces which an empty ``__init__.py`` will allow for.
 
 - ``lib/ansible/modules/``
+- ``lib/ansible/module_utils/``
 - ``test/units/``
diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/__init__.py
index 9cde27b522..e69de29bb2 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/__init__.py
@@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
-# 2013, Michael DeHaan <michael.dehaan@gmail.com>
-#
-# This file is part of Ansible
-#
-# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
-# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
-# (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-
-# Note: Do not add any code to this file.  module_utils may be a namespace
-# package when using Ansible-2.1+ Anything in this file may not be available
-# if one of the other packages in the namespace is loaded first.
diff --git a/test/sanity/code-smell/empty-init.sh b/test/sanity/code-smell/empty-init.sh
index cdfe71584f..3ae810f5f9 100755
--- a/test/sanity/code-smell/empty-init.sh
+++ b/test/sanity/code-smell/empty-init.sh
@@ -2,8 +2,11 @@
 
 found=''
 
-for path in lib/ansible/modules/ test/units/; do
-    files=$(find "${path}" -name __init__.py -size '+0')
+for path in lib/ansible/modules/ lib/ansible/module_utils test/units/; do
+    # facts is grandfathered in but will break namespacing.  Only way to fix it
+    # is to deprecate and eventually remove.
+    # six will break namespacing but because it is bundled we should not be overriding it
+    files=$(find "${path}" -name __init__.py -size '+0' | sed '\!lib/ansible/module_utils/\(six\|facts\)/__init__.py!d')
 
     if [ "${files}" ]; then
         echo "${files}"