diff --git a/meta/classes-global/base.bbclass b/meta/classes-global/base.bbclass
index 5b8663f454..b81e61fdb7 100644
--- a/meta/classes-global/base.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-global/base.bbclass
@@ -581,7 +581,6 @@ python () {
             if unskipped_pkgs:
                 for pkg in skipped_pkgs:
                     bb.debug(1, "Skipping the package %s at do_rootfs because of incompatible license(s): %s" % (pkg, ' '.join(skipped_pkgs[pkg])))
-                    d.setVar('_exclude_incompatible-' + pkg, ' '.join(skipped_pkgs[pkg]))
                 for pkg in unskipped_pkgs:
                     bb.debug(1, "Including the package %s" % pkg)
             else:
diff --git a/meta/classes-global/package.bbclass b/meta/classes-global/package.bbclass
index 6cd8c0140f..9be1d6a5b1 100644
--- a/meta/classes-global/package.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-global/package.bbclass
@@ -447,10 +447,6 @@ def gen_packagevar(d, pkgvars="PACKAGEVARS"):
     for p in pkgs:
         for v in vars:
             ret.append(v + ":" + p)
-
-        # Ensure that changes to INCOMPATIBLE_LICENSE re-run do_package for
-        # affected recipes.
-        ret.append('_exclude_incompatible-%s' % p)
     return " ".join(ret)
 
 
diff --git a/meta/lib/oe/package.py b/meta/lib/oe/package.py
index c213a9a3ca..104b880b9e 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oe/package.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oe/package.py
@@ -1447,10 +1447,10 @@ def populate_packages(d):
 
     # Handle excluding packages with incompatible licenses
     package_list = []
+    skipped_pkgs = oe.license.skip_incompatible_package_licenses(d, packages)
     for pkg in packages:
-        licenses = d.getVar('_exclude_incompatible-' + pkg)
-        if licenses:
-            msg = "Excluding %s from packaging as it has incompatible license(s): %s" % (pkg, licenses)
+        if pkg in skipped_pkgs:
+            msg = "Excluding %s from packaging as it has incompatible license(s): %s" % (pkg, skipped_pkgs[pkg])
             oe.qa.handle_error("incompatible-license", msg, d)
         else:
             package_list.append(pkg)