diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index 9a8224dc7d..2b21352c58 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ The following organizations or individuals have contributed to ScanCode:
 - Akanksha Garg @akugarg
 - Alex Blekhman @a-tinsmith
 - Alexander Gschrei @agschrei
+- Anurag Tiwari @Anuragluck
 - Armijn Hemmel @armijnhemel
 - Armin Tänzer @armintaenzertng
 - Arnaud Jeansen @ajeans
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index abc3ae41ad..00a301857f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@ Next release
   ``ValueError: did not find any 'pre_scan' hooks``.
   https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit/issues/5363
 
+- Fix the import typo in ``commoncode.fetch.ping_url``. It imported
+  ``urlib.request`` and fell back to ``urllib2``, so it always failed
+  on Python 3.
+  https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode-toolkit/issues/5423
+
 v33.0.0rc1 - 2026-05-14
 ------------------------
 
diff --git a/src/commoncode/fetch.py b/src/commoncode/fetch.py
index 7218b0159c..fecdd755ef 100644
--- a/src/commoncode/fetch.py
+++ b/src/commoncode/fetch.py
@@ -57,10 +57,7 @@ def ping_url(url):
     """
     Return True is `url` is reachable.
     """
-    try:
-        from urlib.request import urlopen
-    except ImportError:
-        from urllib2 import urlopen
+    from urllib.request import urlopen
 
     # FIXME: if there is no 200 HTTP status, then the ULR may not be reachable.
     try:
diff --git a/tests/commoncode/test_fetch.py b/tests/commoncode/test_fetch.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e3348ba228
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/commoncode/test_fetch.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#
+# Copyright (c) nexB Inc. and others. All rights reserved.
+# ScanCode is a trademark of nexB Inc.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+# See http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 for the license text.
+# See https://github.com/nexB/scancode-toolkit for support or download.
+# See https://aboutcode.org for more information about nexB OSS projects.
+#
+
+from unittest import mock
+
+from commoncode.fetch import ping_url
+
+
+def test_ping_url_returns_true_when_url_is_reachable():
+    with mock.patch("urllib.request.urlopen") as mock_urlopen:
+        assert ping_url("http://example.com") is True
+        mock_urlopen.assert_called_once_with("http://example.com")
+
+
+def test_ping_url_returns_false_when_url_is_unreachable():
+    with mock.patch("urllib.request.urlopen", side_effect=OSError):
+        assert ping_url("http://example.com") is False