diff --git a/pygeoapi/util.py b/pygeoapi/util.py
index b60e187a0..0a5682948 100644
--- a/pygeoapi/util.py
+++ b/pygeoapi/util.py
@@ -619,7 +619,8 @@ def read_data(path: Union[Path, str]) -> Union[bytes, str]:
 
     LOGGER.debug(f'Attempting to read {path}')
 
-    if isinstance(path, Path) or not path.startswith(('http', 's3')):
+    if isinstance(path, Path) or \
+            urlparse(path).scheme.lower() not in ('http', 'https', 's3'):
         LOGGER.debug('local file on disk')
         with Path(path).open('rb') as fh:
             return fh.read()
diff --git a/tests/other/test_util.py b/tests/other/test_util.py
index 7cb321019..5cabe1066 100644
--- a/tests/other/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/other/test_util.py
@@ -228,6 +228,25 @@ def test_read_data():
     assert isinstance(data, bytes)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('dirname', ['httpdata', 's3cache'])
+def test_read_data_local_path_with_url_like_prefix(tmp_path, monkeypatch,
+                                                   dirname):
+    (tmp_path / dirname).mkdir()
+    (tmp_path / dirname / 'data.txt').write_bytes(b'local')
+    monkeypatch.chdir(tmp_path)
+
+    assert util.read_data(f'{dirname}/data.txt') == b'local'
+
+
+def test_read_data_url():
+    response = mock.MagicMock()
+    response.__enter__.return_value.read.return_value = b'remote'
+    with mock.patch('pygeoapi.util.urlopen',
+                    return_value=response) as urlopen:
+        assert util.read_data('https://example.org/data.txt') == b'remote'
+    urlopen.assert_called_once_with('https://example.org/data.txt')
+
+
 def test_url_join():
     f = util.url_join
     assert f('http://localhost:5000') == 'http://localhost:5000'