diff --git a/lib/getinfo.c b/lib/getinfo.c
index 758cf54bbe..c3556b3102 100644
--- a/lib/getinfo.c
+++ b/lib/getinfo.c
@@ -578,7 +578,7 @@ CURLcode Curl_getinfo(struct Curl_easy *data, CURLINFO info, ...)
   CURLcode result = CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION;
 
   if(!data)
-    return result;
+    return CURLE_BAD_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT;
 
   va_start(arg, info);