diff --git a/swh/lister/tests/test_throttling_retry.py b/swh/lister/tests/test_throttling_retry.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/lister/tests/test_throttling_retry.py
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2021 the Software Heritage developers
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+import pytest
+import requests
+from tenacity.wait import wait_fixed
+
+from swh.lister.throttling_retry import (
+    MAX_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS,
+    WAIT_EXP_BASE,
+    throttling_retry,
+)
+
+TEST_URL = "https://example.og/api/repositories"
+
+
+@throttling_retry()
+def make_request():
+    response = requests.get(TEST_URL)
+    response.raise_for_status()
+    return response
+
+
+def _assert_sleep_calls(mocker, mock_sleep, sleep_params):
+    try:
+        mock_sleep.assert_has_calls([mocker.call(param) for param in sleep_params])
+    except AssertionError:
+        # tenacity < 5.1 has a different behavior for wait_exponential
+        # https://github.com/jd/tenacity/commit/aac4307a0aa30d7befd0ebe4212ee4fc69083a95
+        mock_sleep.assert_has_calls(
+            [mocker.call(param * WAIT_EXP_BASE) for param in sleep_params]
+        )
+
+
+def test_throttling_retry(requests_mock, mocker):
+    data = {"result": {}}
+    requests_mock.get(
+        TEST_URL,
+        [
+            {"status_code": 429},
+            {"status_code": 429},
+            {"status_code": 200, "json": data},
+        ],
+    )
+
+    mock_sleep = mocker.patch.object(make_request.retry, "sleep")
+
+    response = make_request()
+
+    _assert_sleep_calls(mocker, mock_sleep, [1, WAIT_EXP_BASE])
+
+    assert response.json() == data
+
+
+def test_throttling_retry_max_attemps(requests_mock, mocker):
+    requests_mock.get(
+        TEST_URL, [{"status_code": 429}] * (MAX_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS),
+    )
+
+    mock_sleep = mocker.patch.object(make_request.retry, "sleep")
+
+    with pytest.raises(requests.exceptions.HTTPError) as e:
+        make_request()
+
+    assert e.value.response.status_code == 429
+
+    _assert_sleep_calls(
+        mocker,
+        mock_sleep,
+        [float(WAIT_EXP_BASE ** i) for i in range(MAX_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS - 1)],
+    )
+
+
+@throttling_retry(wait=wait_fixed(WAIT_EXP_BASE))
+def make_request_wait_fixed():
+    response = requests.get(TEST_URL)
+    response.raise_for_status()
+    return response
+
+
+def test_throttling_retry_wait_fixed(requests_mock, mocker):
+    requests_mock.get(
+        TEST_URL, [{"status_code": 429}, {"status_code": 429}, {"status_code": 200}]
+    )
+
+    mock_sleep = mocker.patch.object(make_request_wait_fixed.retry, "sleep")
+
+    make_request_wait_fixed()
+
+    _assert_sleep_calls(mocker, mock_sleep, [WAIT_EXP_BASE] * 2)
diff --git a/swh/lister/throttling_retry.py b/swh/lister/throttling_retry.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/lister/throttling_retry.py
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2021 the Software Heritage developers
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information*
+
+from requests.exceptions import HTTPError
+from requests.status_codes import codes
+from tenacity import retry as tenacity_retry
+from tenacity.stop import stop_after_attempt
+from tenacity.wait import wait_exponential
+
+
+def is_throttling_exception(e: Exception) -> bool:
+    """
+    Checks if an exception is a requests.exception.HTTPError for
+    a response with status code 429 (too many requests).
+    """
+    return (
+        isinstance(e, HTTPError) and e.response.status_code == codes.too_many_requests
+    )
+
+
+def retry_attempt(retry_state):
+    """
+    Utility function to get last retry attempt info based on the
+    tenacity version (as debian buster packages version 4.12).
+    """
+    try:
+        attempt = retry_state.outcome
+    except AttributeError:
+        # tenacity < 5.0
+        attempt = retry_state
+    return attempt
+
+
+def retry_if_throttling(retry_state) -> bool:
+    """
+    Custom tenacity retry predicate for handling HTTP responses with
+    status code 429 (too many requests).
+    """
+    attempt = retry_attempt(retry_state)
+    if attempt.failed:
+        exception = attempt.exception()
+        return is_throttling_exception(exception)
+    return False
+
+
+WAIT_EXP_BASE = 10
+MAX_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS = 5
+
+
+def throttling_retry(
+    retry=retry_if_throttling,
+    wait=wait_exponential(exp_base=WAIT_EXP_BASE),
+    stop=stop_after_attempt(max_attempt_number=MAX_NUMBER_ATTEMPTS),
+    **retry_args,
+):
+    """
+    Decorator for retrying a function possibly raising requests.exception.HTTPError
+    for status code 429 (too many requests).
+
+    The default wait strategy is based on exponential backoff.
+
+    The default max number of attempts is set to 5, HTTPError exception
+    will then be reraised.
+
+    All tenacity.retry parameters can also be overridden in client code.
+    """
+    return tenacity_retry(retry=retry, wait=wait, stop=stop, reraise=True, **retry_args)