diff --git a/src/pretix/base/services/waitinglist.py b/src/pretix/base/services/waitinglist.py
index 3624d8751..5c8f43faa 100644
--- a/src/pretix/base/services/waitinglist.py
+++ b/src/pretix/base/services/waitinglist.py
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ def assign_automatically(event: Event, user_id: int=None, subevent_id: int=None)
                 continue
             if wle.subevent and not wle.subevent.presale_is_running:
                 continue
+            if not wle.item.active or (wle.variation and not wle.variation.active):
+                continue
 
             quotas = (wle.variation.quotas.filter(subevent=wle.subevent)
                       if wle.variation