diff --git a/tests/core/contracts/test_contract_call_interface.py b/tests/core/contracts/test_contract_call_interface.py
index 8a567f3253..27c0fd8ef1 100644
--- a/tests/core/contracts/test_contract_call_interface.py
+++ b/tests/core/contracts/test_contract_call_interface.py
@@ -2,9 +2,13 @@
     Decimal,
     getcontext,
 )
+from distutils.version import (
+    LooseVersion,
+)
 import json
 import pytest
 
+import eth_abi
 from hexbytes import (
     HexBytes,
 )
@@ -184,6 +188,9 @@ def test_call_get_string_value(string_contract, call):
     assert result == "Caqalai"
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    LooseVersion(eth_abi.__version__) >= LooseVersion("2"),
+    reason="eth-abi >=2 does utf-8 string decoding")
 def test_call_read_string_variable(string_contract, call):
     result = call(contract=string_contract,
                   contract_function='constValue')
diff --git a/web3/utils/normalizers.py b/web3/utils/normalizers.py
index 7e7d266076..d4c0a2a9c3 100644
--- a/web3/utils/normalizers.py
+++ b/web3/utils/normalizers.py
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 
 import codecs
+from distutils.version import (
+    LooseVersion,
+)
 import functools
 import json
 
+import eth_abi
 from eth_abi.abi import (
     process_type,
 )
@@ -140,11 +144,14 @@ def abi_ens_resolver(w3, abi_type, val):
 
 
 BASE_RETURN_NORMALIZERS = [
-    addresses_checksummed,
-    decode_abi_strings,
+    addresses_checksummed
 ]
 
 
+if LooseVersion(eth_abi.__version__) < LooseVersion("2"):
+    BASE_RETURN_NORMALIZERS.append(decode_abi_strings)
+
+
 #
 # Property Normalizers
 #