diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/formula_auditor.rb b/Library/Homebrew/formula_auditor.rb
index 705d18fa78..b68a81f3df 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/formula_auditor.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/formula_auditor.rb
@@ -892,8 +892,9 @@ module Homebrew
           # This variation either:
           #   1. does not exist
           #   2. has no variation-specific dependencies
-          # In either case, it matches Linux.
-          return false if variation_dependencies.blank?
+          # In either case, it matches Linux. We must check for `nil` because an empty
+          # array indicates that this variation does not depend on GCC.
+          return false if variation_dependencies.nil?
           # We found a non-Linux variation that depends on GCC.
           return false if variation_dependencies.include?("gcc")
         end