diff --git a/micrometer-core/src/main/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/Tags.java b/micrometer-core/src/main/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/Tags.java
index b82f88f947..1239bd056f 100644
--- a/micrometer-core/src/main/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/Tags.java
+++ b/micrometer-core/src/main/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/Tags.java
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ public Tags and(@Nullable Tag... tags) {
      * @return a new {@code Tags} instance
      */
     public Tags and(@Nullable Iterable<? extends Tag> tags) {
-        if (tags == null || !tags.iterator().hasNext()) {
+        if (tags == null || tags == EMPTY || !tags.iterator().hasNext()) {
             return this;
         }
 
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ public static Tags concat(@Nullable Iterable<? extends Tag> tags, @Nullable Stri
      * @return a new {@code Tags} instance
      */
     public static Tags of(@Nullable Iterable<? extends Tag> tags) {
-        if (tags == null || !tags.iterator().hasNext()) {
+        if (tags == null || tags == EMPTY || !tags.iterator().hasNext()) {
             return Tags.empty();
         }
         else if (tags instanceof Tags) {
diff --git a/micrometer-core/src/test/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/TagsTest.java b/micrometer-core/src/test/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/TagsTest.java
index e3191e8c59..b943880010 100644
--- a/micrometer-core/src/test/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/TagsTest.java
+++ b/micrometer-core/src/test/java/io/micrometer/core/instrument/TagsTest.java
@@ -15,12 +15,13 @@
  */
 package io.micrometer.core.instrument;
 
+import com.sun.management.ThreadMXBean;
+import io.micrometer.core.Issue;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.condition.DisabledIfSystemProperty;
 
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.Arrays;
-import java.util.Collections;
-import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
+import java.util.*;
 import java.util.stream.Stream;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
@@ -36,6 +37,9 @@
  */
 class TagsTest {
 
+    // Should match "Eclipse OpenJ9 VM" and "IBM J9 VM"
+    private static final String JAVA_VM_NAME_J9_REGEX = ".*J9 VM$";
+
     @Test
     void dedup() {
         assertThat(Tags.of("k1", "v1", "k2", "v2")).containsExactly(Tag.of("k1", "v1"), Tag.of("k2", "v2"));
@@ -285,6 +289,41 @@ void emptyShouldNotContainTags() {
         assertThat(Tags.empty().iterator()).isExhausted();
     }
 
+    @Test
+    @Issue("#3313")
+    @DisabledIfSystemProperty(named = "java.vm.name", matches = JAVA_VM_NAME_J9_REGEX,
+            disabledReason = "Sun ThreadMXBean with allocation counter not available")
+    void andEmptyDoesNotAllocate() {
+        ThreadMXBean threadMXBean = (ThreadMXBean) ManagementFactory.getThreadMXBean();
+        long currentThreadId = Thread.currentThread().getId();
+        Tags tags = Tags.of("a", "b");
+        Tags extraTags = Tags.empty();
+
+        long allocatedBytesBefore = threadMXBean.getThreadAllocatedBytes(currentThreadId);
+        Tags combined = tags.and(extraTags);
+        long allocatedBytes = threadMXBean.getThreadAllocatedBytes(currentThreadId) - allocatedBytesBefore;
+
+        assertThat(combined).isEqualTo(tags);
+        assertThat(allocatedBytes).isZero();
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    @Issue("#3313")
+    @DisabledIfSystemProperty(named = "java.vm.name", matches = JAVA_VM_NAME_J9_REGEX,
+            disabledReason = "Sun ThreadMXBean with allocation counter not available")
+    void ofEmptyDoesNotAllocate() {
+        ThreadMXBean threadMXBean = (ThreadMXBean) ManagementFactory.getThreadMXBean();
+        long currentThreadId = Thread.currentThread().getId();
+        Tags extraTags = Tags.empty();
+
+        long allocatedBytesBefore = threadMXBean.getThreadAllocatedBytes(currentThreadId);
+        Tags of = Tags.of(extraTags);
+        long allocatedBytes = threadMXBean.getThreadAllocatedBytes(currentThreadId) - allocatedBytesBefore;
+
+        assertThat(of).isEqualTo(Tags.empty());
+        assertThat(allocatedBytes).isZero();
+    }
+
     private void assertTags(Tags tags, String... keyValues) {
         Iterator<Tag> actual = tags.iterator();
         Iterator<String> expected = Arrays.asList(keyValues).iterator();