diff --git a/python/indexed_bzip2/pyproject.toml b/python/indexed_bzip2/pyproject.toml
index 40b1824e..06590560 100644
--- a/python/indexed_bzip2/pyproject.toml
+++ b/python/indexed_bzip2/pyproject.toml
@@ -3,5 +3,6 @@
 [build-system]
 # Use setuptools >= 43 because it automatically includes pyproject.toml in source distribution
 # Use setuptools >= 46.5 to use attr: package.__version__
+# Use setuptools < 72 because of this: https://github.com/pypa/distutils/issues/283
 # https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/history.html#id284
-requires = ["setuptools >= 46.4.0", "wheel", "cython >= 0.29.24"]
+requires = ["setuptools >= 46.4.0, < 72", "wheel", "cython >= 0.29.24"]
diff --git a/python/rapidgzip/pyproject.toml b/python/rapidgzip/pyproject.toml
index 40b1824e..aa766de0 100644
--- a/python/rapidgzip/pyproject.toml
+++ b/python/rapidgzip/pyproject.toml
@@ -3,5 +3,11 @@
 [build-system]
 # Use setuptools >= 43 because it automatically includes pyproject.toml in source distribution
 # Use setuptools >= 46.5 to use attr: package.__version__
+# Use setuptools < 72 because of this: https://github.com/pypa/distutils/issues/283
+# Use setuptools < 74 because of removed msvccompiler:
+# https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/4612
+# https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/3532
+# https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/pull/3505
+# https://github.com/zhisong/pyoculus/issues/10
 # https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/history.html#id284
-requires = ["setuptools >= 46.4.0", "wheel", "cython >= 0.29.24"]
+requires = ["setuptools >= 46.4.0, < 72", "wheel", "cython >= 0.29.24"]