diff --git a/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py b/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py
index fff6c0d865b441..6f6e2d4e700dc3 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py
@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ def test_bad_keys_paths(self):
             "America/../America/Los_Angeles",  # Not normalized
             "America/./Los_Angeles",
             "",
+            b"",
         ]
 
         for bad_key in bad_keys:
diff --git a/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py b/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py
index 990a5c8b6a9372..7a9d15a41acbdb 100644
--- a/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py
+++ b/Lib/zoneinfo/_tzpath.py
@@ -83,10 +83,14 @@ def find_tzfile(key):
 
 
 def _validate_tzfile_path(path, _base=_TEST_PATH):
-    if not path:
+    if isinstance(path, str) and path == "":
         raise ValueError(
             "ZoneInfo key must not be an empty string"
         )
+    elif isinstance(path, bytes) and path == b"":
+        raise ValueError(
+            "ZoneInfo key must not be an empty bytes object"
+        )
 
     if os.path.isabs(path):
         raise ValueError(
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-04-16-11-58-20.gh-issue-114713.asdj1k.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-04-16-11-58-20.gh-issue-114713.asdj1k.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..22bb639f90cbe9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-04-16-11-58-20.gh-issue-114713.asdj1k.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Handle case of an empty bytes object passed to :class:`zoneinfo.ZoneInfo`.
+