diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index f746ac1..ea94719 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -23,12 +23,6 @@ module.exports = function(content) {
     loaderUtils.getOptions(this)
     : getLegacyLoaderConfig(this, "imageWebpackLoader");
 
-  if (config === null) {
-    // handle the cases in which loaderUtils.getOptions() returns null
-    // see https://github.com/webpack/loader-utils#getoptions
-    config = {}
-  }
-
   var options = {
     bypassOnDebug: config.bypassOnDebug || false,
     disable: config.disable || false,