diff --git a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c
index 482cde63..4917e55d 100644
--- a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c
+++ b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.c
@@ -1130,7 +1130,7 @@ flatpak_dir_load_appstream_store (FlatpakDir   *self,
 
   appstream_file = g_file_new_for_path (appstream_path);
   as_metadata_set_format_style (mdata, AS_FORMAT_STYLE_COLLECTION);
-#ifdef HAVE_APPSTREAM_0_14_0
+#if AS_CHECK_VERSION(0, 14, 0)
   success = as_metadata_parse_file (mdata, appstream_file, AS_FORMAT_KIND_XML, &local_error);
 #else
   as_metadata_parse_file (mdata, appstream_file, AS_FORMAT_KIND_XML, &local_error);
diff --git a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h
index 01893157..958cd79a 100644
--- a/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h
+++ b/app/flatpak-builtins-utils.h
@@ -28,6 +28,12 @@
 #include "flatpak-dir-private.h"
 #include "flatpak-permission-dbus-generated.h"
 
+/* AS_CHECK_VERSION was introduced in 0.14.0; we still support 0.12.0, so
+ * behave as though versions without this macro are arbitrarily old */
+#ifndef AS_CHECK_VERSION
+#define AS_CHECK_VERSION(major, minor, micro) (0)
+#endif
+
 /* Appstream data expires after a day */
 #define FLATPAK_APPSTREAM_TTL 86400
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 51ebbe19..26ba8eb1 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -362,9 +362,6 @@ PKG_CHECK_MODULES(OSTREE, [ostree-1 >= $OSTREE_REQS])
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(JSON, [json-glib-1.0])
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(APPSTREAM, [appstream >= 0.12.0])
-PKG_CHECK_MODULES(APPSTREAM_0_14_0, appstream >= 0.14.0,
-                  [AC_DEFINE([HAVE_APPSTREAM_0_14_0], [1], [Define if appstream >= 0.14.0 is available])],
-                  [true])
 
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(GDK_PIXBUF, [gdk-pixbuf-2.0])