diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..268fd3a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.flake8
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+[flake8]
+ignore =
+    # Refers to the max-line length. Let's suppress the error and simply
+    # let black take care on how it wants to format the lines.
+    E501,
+
+    # Refers to "line break before/after binary operator".
+    # Similar to above, let black take care of the formatting.
+    W503,
+    W504,
+
+    # black disagrees with flake8, and inserts whitespace
+    E203,  # whitespace before ':'
diff --git a/pytest.ini b/pytest.ini
index 68cfd625..515b2196 100644
--- a/pytest.ini
+++ b/pytest.ini
@@ -1,19 +1,2 @@
 [pytest]
 doctest_optionflags = ALLOW_UNICODE ALLOW_BYTES
-flake8-max-line-length = 88
-flake8-ignore =
-    W503  # https://www.flake8rules.com/rules/W503.html
-    E203  # https://www.flake8rules.com/rules/E203.html
-
-    docs/conf.py E121 E122 E265 E401
-    tests/test_encoding.py E128 E221 E241 E302 E401 E501 E731
-    tests/test_form.py E265
-    tests/test_html.py E123 E128 E241 E303 E501 E502
-    tests/test_http.py E128 E261 E302 W291
-    tests/test_url.py E126 E127 E128 E226 E261 E303 E501 W293 W391
-    w3lib/encoding.py E126 E128 E302 E305 E401 E501
-    w3lib/form.py E402 E501 E721
-    w3lib/html.py E128 E302 E501 E502 W504
-    w3lib/http.py E501
-    w3lib/url.py E128 E261 E302 E305 E501 F841 W291 W293 W504
-    w3lib/util.py E302
diff --git a/tests/test_encoding.py b/tests/test_encoding.py
index dfda2032..865cf720 100644
--- a/tests/test_encoding.py
+++ b/tests/test_encoding.py
@@ -280,7 +280,9 @@ def test_html_encoding(self):
         self._assert_encoding_detected(None, "utf-8", codecs.BOM_UTF8 + body)
 
     def test_autodetect(self):
-        asciif = lambda x: "ascii"
+        def asciif(x):
+            return "ascii"
+
         body = b"""<meta charset="utf-8">"""
         # body encoding takes precedence
         self._assert_encoding_detected(None, "utf-8", body, auto_detect_fun=asciif)
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index aae72b69..5647f5a1 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -27,17 +27,17 @@ basepython = python3
 deps =
     # mypy would error if pytest (or its sub) not found
     pytest
-    mypy==0.910
+    mypy==0.971
 commands =
     mypy --show-error-codes {posargs: w3lib tests}
 
 [testenv:flake8]
 basepython = python3
 deps =
-    {[testenv]deps}
-    pytest-flake8
+    flake8
 commands =
-    pytest --flake8
+    flake8 \
+    {posargs:w3lib tests setup.py}
 
 [testenv:pylint]
 deps =
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ commands =
 
 [testenv:black]
 deps =
-    black==22.3.0
+    black==22.6.0
 commands =
     black --check {posargs:conftest.py setup.py tests w3lib}
 
diff --git a/w3lib/encoding.py b/w3lib/encoding.py
index 86b678be..db5a2b25 100644
--- a/w3lib/encoding.py
+++ b/w3lib/encoding.py
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 """
 Functions for handling encoding of web pages
 """
-import re, codecs, encodings
+import re
+import codecs
+import encodings
 from typing import Callable, Match, Optional, Tuple, Union, cast
+
 from w3lib._types import AnyUnicodeError, StrOrBytes
 import w3lib.util