diff --git a/urbanairship-core/src/main/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecks.java b/urbanairship-core/src/main/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecks.java
index 09cc5aea6..c5cd71e72 100644
--- a/urbanairship-core/src/main/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecks.java
+++ b/urbanairship-core/src/main/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecks.java
@@ -9,13 +9,17 @@
 import android.support.v4.os.ConfigurationCompat;
 import android.support.v4.os.LocaleListCompat;
 
+import com.urbanairship.Logger;
 import com.urbanairship.UAirship;
 import com.urbanairship.util.VersionUtils;
 import com.urbanairship.location.UALocationManager;
 import com.urbanairship.push.PushManager;
 import com.urbanairship.util.UAStringUtil;
 
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Set;
@@ -143,6 +147,26 @@ private static boolean isAppVersionConditionMet(@NonNull Audience audience) {
         return audience.getVersionPredicate().apply(VersionUtils.createVersionObject());
     }
 
+    private static Set<String> sanitizeLanguageTags(List<String> languageTags) {
+        HashSet<String> sanitizedLanguageTags = new HashSet<>();
+
+        for (String languageTag : languageTags) {
+            // Remove trailing dashes and underscores
+            if (!UAStringUtil.isEmpty(languageTag)) {
+                if (languageTag.endsWith("_") || languageTag.endsWith("-")) {
+                    Logger.debug("Sanitizing malformed language tag: " + languageTag);
+                    sanitizedLanguageTags.add(languageTag.substring(0, languageTag.length() - 1));
+                } else {
+                    sanitizedLanguageTags.add(languageTag);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        // Remove duplicates
+        return sanitizedLanguageTags;
+    }
+
+
     /**
      * Helper method to check the locales.
      *
@@ -166,23 +190,29 @@ private static boolean isLocaleConditionMet(@NonNull Context context, @NonNull A
         // getFirstMatch will return the default language if none of the specified locales are found,
         // so we still have to verify the locale exists in the audience conditions
 
-        String tags = UAStringUtil.join(audience.getLanguageTags(), ",");
-        LocaleListCompat audienceLocales = LocaleListCompat.forLanguageTags(tags);
-        for (int i = 0; i < audienceLocales.size(); i++) {
-            Locale audienceLocale = audienceLocales.get(i);
+        // Sanitize language tags in case any happen to be malformed
+        Set<String> languageTags = sanitizeLanguageTags(audience.getLanguageTags());
 
-            if (!locale.getLanguage().equals(audienceLocale.getLanguage())) {
-                continue;
-            }
+        try {
+            String joinedTags = UAStringUtil.join(languageTags, ",");
+            LocaleListCompat audienceLocales = LocaleListCompat.forLanguageTags(joinedTags);
+            for (int i = 0; i < audienceLocales.size(); i++) {
+                Locale audienceLocale = audienceLocales.get(i);
 
-            if (!UAStringUtil.isEmpty(audienceLocale.getCountry()) && !audienceLocale.getCountry().equals(locale.getCountry())) {
-                continue;
-            }
+                if (!locale.getLanguage().equals(audienceLocale.getLanguage())) {
+                    continue;
+                }
 
-            return true;
+                if (!UAStringUtil.isEmpty(audienceLocale.getCountry()) && !audienceLocale.getCountry().equals(locale.getCountry())) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                return true;
+            }
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            Logger.error("Unable to construct locale list: ", e);
         }
 
         return false;
     }
-
 }
diff --git a/urbanairship-core/src/test/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecksTest.java b/urbanairship-core/src/test/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecksTest.java
index b79513b45..90aa90292 100644
--- a/urbanairship-core/src/test/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecksTest.java
+++ b/urbanairship-core/src/test/java/com/urbanairship/iam/AudienceChecksTest.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import java.util.Set;
 
 import static com.urbanairship.iam.tags.TestUtils.tagSet;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
@@ -222,4 +223,18 @@ public void testAppVersion() {
         when(applicationMetrics.getCurrentAppVersion()).thenReturn(3);
         assertFalse(AudienceChecks.checkAudience(context, audience));
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testSanitizeLocalesInChecks() {
+        Audience audience = Audience.newBuilder()
+                                    .addLanguageTag("en-")
+                                    .addLanguageTag("en_")
+                                    .addLanguageTag("en")
+                                    .addLanguageTag("-")
+                                    .addLanguageTag("_")
+                                    .addLanguageTag("")
+                                    .build();
+
+        assertTrue(AudienceChecks.checkAudience(context, audience));
+    }
 }
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