diff --git a/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/metadata.py b/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/metadata.py
index e3e9f2ba2..22e8c9738 100644
--- a/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/metadata.py
+++ b/plugins/pulp_rpm/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/metadata.py
@@ -200,6 +200,9 @@ def download_metadata_files(self):
             download_request_list.append(request)
 
         self.downloader.download(download_request_list)
+        if self.event_listener.failed_reports:
+            error_report = self.event_listener.failed_reports[0]
+            raise IOError(error_report.error_msg)
 
     def verify_metadata_files(self):
         """
diff --git a/plugins/test/unit/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/test_metadata.py b/plugins/test/unit/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/test_metadata.py
index ef4de0af5..ce2fd9a90 100644
--- a/plugins/test/unit/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/test_metadata.py
+++ b/plugins/test/unit/plugins/importers/yum/repomd/test_metadata.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 import mock
 from nectar.config import DownloaderConfig
+from nectar.report import DownloadReport
 
 from pulp_rpm.devel.skip import skip_broken
 from pulp_rpm.plugins.importers.yum.utils import RepoURLModifier
@@ -206,6 +207,21 @@ def test_does_not_skip_unknown_sqlite_files(self):
         self.assertTrue(requests[0].destination.endswith('primary'))
         self.assertTrue(requests[1].destination.endswith('pkgtags.sqlite.gz'))
 
+    def test_failed_reports(self):
+        self.metadata_files.downloader.download = mock.MagicMock(
+            spec_set=self.metadata_files.downloader.download
+        )
+        self.metadata_files.metadata = {
+            'primary': file_info_factory('primary'),
+        }
+
+        report = DownloadReport('url', '/destination')
+        report.download_failed()
+        self.metadata_files.event_listener.failed_reports.append(report)
+
+        # Ensure an exception is raised if the download failed
+        self.assertRaises(IOError, self.metadata_files.download_metadata_files)
+
 
 class TestQueryAuthToken(unittest.TestCase):
     def setUp(self):