diff --git a/.changelog/4888.removed b/.changelog/4888.removed
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..796a622d5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/4888.removed
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+`opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon`: remove the runtime `packaging` dependency in favor of the internal PEP 440 implementation in `opentelemetry-instrumentation`
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/pyproject.toml b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/pyproject.toml
index 7157f0620b..389e4c8044 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/pyproject.toml
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/pyproject.toml
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ dependencies = [
   "opentelemetry-instrumentation-wsgi == 0.66b0.dev",
   "opentelemetry-semantic-conventions == 0.66b0.dev",
   "opentelemetry-util-http == 0.66b0.dev",
-  "packaging >= 20.0",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/falcon/__init__.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/falcon/__init__.py
index f99c16029b..4b5c8bef5b 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/falcon/__init__.py
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-falcon/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/falcon/__init__.py
@@ -180,10 +180,12 @@ def response_hook(span, req, resp):
 from typing import Collection
 
 import falcon
-from packaging import version as package_version
 
 import opentelemetry.instrumentation.wsgi as otel_wsgi
 from opentelemetry import context, trace
+from opentelemetry.instrumentation._packaging import (
+    version as package_version,
+)
 from opentelemetry.instrumentation._semconv import (
     HTTP_DURATION_HISTOGRAM_BUCKETS_NEW,
     _get_schema_url,