diff --git a/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.cpp b/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.cpp
index f4fbec03b34ac4..3152bbf604ffd9 100644
--- a/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.cpp
+++ b/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.cpp
@@ -130,6 +130,19 @@ void AttributeValueEncoder::EnsureListEnded()
 
     AttributeReportBuilder builder;
     VerifyOrDie(builder.FinishAttribute(mAttributeReportIBsBuilder) == CHIP_NO_ERROR);
+
+    if (!mEncodedAtLeastOneListItem)
+    {
+        // If we have not managed to encode any list items, we don't actually
+        // want to output the single "empty list" IB that will then be followed
+        // by one-IB-per-item in the next packet.  Just have the reporting
+        // engine roll back our entire attribute and put us in the next packet.
+        //
+        // If we succeeded at encoding the whole list (i.e. the list is in fact
+        // empty and we fit in the packet), mAllowPartialData will be ignored,
+        // so it's safe to set it to false even if encoding succeeded.
+        mEncodeState.mAllowPartialData = false;
+    }
 }
 
 } // namespace app
diff --git a/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.h b/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.h
index 8b4ec3a0c91d47..c195dd4f8b66ef 100644
--- a/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.h
+++ b/src/app/AttributeAccessInterface.h
@@ -292,6 +292,7 @@ class AttributeValueEncoder
 
         mCurrentEncodingListIndex++;
         mEncodeState.mCurrentEncodingListIndex++;
+        mEncodedAtLeastOneListItem = true;
         return CHIP_NO_ERROR;
     }
 
@@ -340,6 +341,8 @@ class AttributeValueEncoder
     // started chunking it yet, so we're encoding a single attribute report IB
     // for the whole list, not one per item.
     bool mEncodingInitialList = false;
+    // mEncodedAtLeastOneListItem becomes true once we successfully encode a list item.
+    bool mEncodedAtLeastOneListItem = false;
     AttributeEncodeState mEncodeState;
     ListIndex mCurrentEncodingListIndex = kInvalidListIndex;
 };
diff --git a/src/app/tests/TestReadInteraction.cpp b/src/app/tests/TestReadInteraction.cpp
index f886d6ead65bd8..a992f143b562ab 100644
--- a/src/app/tests/TestReadInteraction.cpp
+++ b/src/app/tests/TestReadInteraction.cpp
@@ -1295,8 +1295,8 @@ void TestReadInteraction::TestSetDirtyBetweenChunks(nlTestSuite * apSuite, void
                     !aPath.IsListItemOperation())
                 {
                     mGotStartOfSecondReport = true;
-                    // Wait for an actual data chunk.
-                    return;
+                    // We always have data chunks, so go ahead to mark things
+                    // dirty as needed.
                 }
 
                 if (!mGotStartOfSecondReport)