diff --git a/lib/src/main/java/com/uwyn/urlencoder/UrlEncoder.java b/lib/src/main/java/com/uwyn/urlencoder/UrlEncoder.java
index b0237cc..d751011 100644
--- a/lib/src/main/java/com/uwyn/urlencoder/UrlEncoder.java
+++ b/lib/src/main/java/com/uwyn/urlencoder/UrlEncoder.java
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import java.util.BitSet;
  * @author Erik C. Thauvin (erik@thauvin.net)
  * @since 1.0
  */
-public abstract class UrlEncoder {
+public final class UrlEncoder {
     static final BitSet UNRESERVED_URI_CHARS;
     private static final char[] HEX_DIGITS = "0123456789ABCDEF".toCharArray();
 
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ public abstract class UrlEncoder {
         out.append(HEX_DIGITS[digit & 0x0F]);
     }
 
+    private UrlEncoder() {
+        // no-op
+    }
+
     /**
      * Transforms a provided <code>String</code> URL into a new string,
      * containing decoded URL characters in the UTF-8 encoding.