--- src/repl-frontend/scala/tools/nsc/interpreter/shell/ILoop.scala
+++ src/repl-frontend/scala/tools/nsc/interpreter/shell/ILoop.scala
@@ -550,14 +550,17 @@ class ILoop(config: ShellConfig, inOverride: BufferedReader = null,
   // it's also used by ReplTest
   def completionsCommand(what: String): Result = {
     val completions = in.completion.complete(what, what.length)
-    if (completions.candidates.nonEmpty) {
+    val candidates = completions.candidates.filterNot(_.isUniversal)
+    // condition here is a bit weird because of the weird hack we have where
+    // the first candidate having an empty defString means it's not really
+    // completion, but showing the method signature instead
+    if (candidates.headOption.exists(_.defString.nonEmpty)) {
       val prefix =
         if (completions == NoCompletions) ""
         else what.substring(0, completions.cursor)
       // hvesalai (emacs sbt-mode maintainer) says it's important to echo only once and not per-line
       echo(
-        completions.candidates
-          .map(c => s"[completions] $prefix$c")
+        candidates.map(c => s"[completions] $prefix${c.defString}")
           .mkString("\n")
       )
     }