diff --git a/app/flatpak-main.c b/app/flatpak-main.c
index d5794d99..ed050b04 100644
--- a/app/flatpak-main.c
+++ b/app/flatpak-main.c
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@ flatpak_option_context_parse (GOptionContext     *context,
    * which is almost certainly not what the user intended so just consider it
    * an error.
    */
-  if (opt_user && running_under_sudo ())
+  if (opt_user && running_under_sudo_root ())
     return flatpak_fail_error (error, FLATPAK_ERROR,
                                _("Refusing to operate under sudo with --user. "
                                  "Omit sudo to operate on the user installation, "
diff --git a/common/flatpak-run.c b/common/flatpak-run.c
index 7c9c1355..85c234ca 100644
--- a/common/flatpak-run.c
+++ b/common/flatpak-run.c
@@ -3054,7 +3054,7 @@ flatpak_run_app (FlatpakDecomposed   *app_ref,
   /* This check exists to stop accidental usage of `sudo flatpak run`
      and is not to prevent running as root.
    */
-  if (running_under_sudo ())
+  if (running_under_sudo_root ())
     return flatpak_fail_error (error, FLATPAK_ERROR,
                                _("\"flatpak run\" is not intended to be run as `sudo flatpak run`. "
                                  "Use `sudo -i` or `su -l` instead and invoke \"flatpak run\" from "
diff --git a/common/flatpak-utils-private.h b/common/flatpak-utils-private.h
index f486f403..90a203a6 100644
--- a/common/flatpak-utils-private.h
+++ b/common/flatpak-utils-private.h
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ char * flatpak_escape_string (const char        *s,
 gboolean flatpak_validate_path_characters (const char *path,
                                            GError    **error);
 
-gboolean running_under_sudo (void);
+gboolean running_under_sudo_root (void);
 
 void flatpak_set_debugging (gboolean debugging);
 gboolean flatpak_is_debugging (void);
diff --git a/common/flatpak-utils.c b/common/flatpak-utils.c
index 9c1a8817..440c78ae 100644
--- a/common/flatpak-utils.c
+++ b/common/flatpak-utils.c
@@ -2481,7 +2481,7 @@ flatpak_validate_path_characters (const char *path,
 }
 
 gboolean
-running_under_sudo (void)
+running_under_sudo_root (void)
 {
   const char *sudo_command_env = g_getenv ("SUDO_COMMAND");
   g_auto(GStrv) split_command = NULL;
@@ -2491,7 +2491,9 @@ running_under_sudo (void)
 
   /* SUDO_COMMAND could be a value like `/usr/bin/flatpak run foo` */
   split_command = g_strsplit (sudo_command_env, " ", 2);
-  if (g_str_has_suffix (split_command[0], "flatpak"))
+  /* Check if sudo was used to run as root instead of non-root users
+   * using -u or -g for example. */
+  if (g_str_has_suffix (split_command[0], "flatpak") && geteuid () == 0)
     return TRUE;
 
   return FALSE;