diff --git a/scripts/check_3pp_licenses.js b/scripts/check_3pp_licenses.js
index 242e56c60d3c6..cef0daa22345e 100644
--- a/scripts/check_3pp_licenses.js
+++ b/scripts/check_3pp_licenses.js
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ const dashLicensesJar = path.resolve(__dirname, 'download/dash-licenses.jar');
 const dashLicensesSummary = path.resolve(__dirname, '../dependency-check-summary.txt');
 const dashLicensesBaseline = path.resolve(__dirname, '../dependency-check-baseline.json');
 const dashLicensesUrl = 'https://repo.eclipse.org/service/local/artifact/maven/redirect?r=dash-licenses&g=org.eclipse.dash&a=org.eclipse.dash.licenses&v=LATEST';
+const dashLicensesInternalError = 127;
 
 // A Eclipse Foundation Gitlab Personal Access Token, generated by an Eclipse committer,
 // is required to use dash-licenses in "review" mode. For more information see:
@@ -71,12 +72,21 @@ async function main() {
         info(`Using "review" mode for project: ${project}`);
         args.push('-review', '-token', personalAccessToken);
     }
-    const dashError = getErrorFromStatus(spawn('java', args, {
-        stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'inherit']
-    }));
+    const dashStatus = spawn('java', args, {
+        stdio: ['ignore', 'inherit', 'inherit']
+    });
+
+    const dashError = getErrorFromStatus(dashStatus);
+
     if (dashError) {
-        warn(dashError);
+        if (dashStatus.status == dashLicensesInternalError) {
+            error(dashError);
+            error('Detected an internal error in dash-licenses - run inconclusive');
+            process.exit(dashLicensesInternalError);        
+        }
+       warn(dashError);
     }
+    
     const restricted = await getRestrictedDependenciesFromSummary(dashLicensesSummary);
     if (restricted.length > 0) {
         if (fs.existsSync(dashLicensesBaseline)) {
@@ -235,6 +245,9 @@ function getErrorFromStatus(status) {
     if (typeof status.signal === 'string') {
         return `Command ${prettyCommand(status)} exited with signal: ${status.signal}`;
     } else if (status.status !== 0) {
+        if (status.status == dashLicensesInternalError) {
+            return `Command ${prettyCommand(status)} exit code (${status.status}) means dash-licenses has encountered an internal error`;
+        }
         return `Command ${prettyCommand(status)} exited with code: ${status.status}`;
     }
 }