diff --git a/R/faers.R b/R/faers.R
index 7dced57..d864486 100644
--- a/R/faers.R
+++ b/R/faers.R
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 faers <- function(years, quarters, format = NULL, dir = getwd(), compress_dir = dir, handle_opts = list()) {
     format <- match.arg(format, faers_file_format)
     yq <- recycle_scalar(years = years, quarters = quarters)
+    data.table::setDT(yq)
+    yq <- unique(yq)
     faers_files <- do.call(faers_download, c(
         yq, list(format = format, dir = dir), handle_opts
     ))
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_faers.R b/tests/testthat/test_faers.R
index 2e9cfcb..f56d915 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_faers.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_faers.R
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ testthat::test_that("faers() function works as expected", {
         dir = internal_file("extdata"),
         compress_dir = tempdir()
     ))
+    testthat::expect_no_error(data3 <- faers(
+        rep(c(2004, 2017), each = 2L),
+        rep(c("q1", "q2"), each = 2L), "ascii",
+        dir = internal_file("extdata"),
+        compress_dir = tempdir()
+    ))
     testthat::expect_s4_class(data3, "FAERSascii")
     testthat::expect_false(data3@deduplication)
     testthat::expect_false(data3@standardization)