diff --git a/lib/css_parser.rb b/lib/css_parser.rb
index b50f81b..2fbbd20 100644
--- a/lib/css_parser.rb
+++ b/lib/css_parser.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 require 'digest/md5'
 require 'zlib'
 require 'stringio'
-require 'iconv' unless String.method_defined?(:encode)
 
 require 'css_parser/version'
 require 'css_parser/rule_set'
diff --git a/lib/css_parser/parser.rb b/lib/css_parser/parser.rb
index 11dd36f..e199e3b 100644
--- a/lib/css_parser/parser.rb
+++ b/lib/css_parser/parser.rb
@@ -677,12 +677,7 @@ def read_remote_file(uri) # :nodoc:
         end
 
         if charset
-          if String.method_defined?(:encode)
-            src.encode!('UTF-8', charset)
-          else
-            ic = Iconv.new('UTF-8//IGNORE', charset)
-            src = ic.iconv(src)
-          end
+          src.encode!('UTF-8', charset)
         end
       rescue
         @redirect_count = nil