diff --git a/openml/__init__.py b/openml/__init__.py
index ae5db261f..909de2534 100644
--- a/openml/__init__.py
+++ b/openml/__init__.py
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@
     tasks,
     utils,
 )
-from .__version__ import __version__
+
+__version__ = "0.16.0"  # defined here directly, see issue #1642
 from .datasets import OpenMLDataFeature, OpenMLDataset
 from .evaluations import OpenMLEvaluation
 from .flows import OpenMLFlow
diff --git a/openml/__version__.py b/openml/__version__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index cf5a8535d..000000000
--- a/openml/__version__.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-"""Version information."""
-
-# License: BSD 3-Clause
-
-# The following line *must* be the last in the module, exactly as formatted:
-from __future__ import annotations
-
-__version__ = "0.16.0"