diff --git a/net/mpls/af_mpls.c b/net/mpls/af_mpls.c
index b18c5ed42d95..0b80a7140cc4 100644
--- a/net/mpls/af_mpls.c
+++ b/net/mpls/af_mpls.c
@@ -543,6 +543,9 @@ static struct net_device *find_outdev(struct net *net,
 	if (!dev)
 		return ERR_PTR(-ENODEV);
 
+	if (IS_ERR(dev))
+		return dev;
+
 	/* The caller is holding rtnl anyways, so release the dev reference */
 	dev_put(dev);