diff --git a/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js b/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
index fd74fd8922b..f1fd26eed4d 100644
--- a/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
+++ b/addons/web/static/src/js/view_list.js
@@ -1306,9 +1306,11 @@ instance.web.ListView.Groups = instance.web.Class.extend( /** @lends instance.we
                         process_modifiers: false
                     });
                 } catch (e) {
-                    group_label = row_data[group_column.id].value;
+                    group_label = _.str.escapeHTML(row_data[group_column.id].value);
                 }
-                $group_column.text(_.str.sprintf("%s (%d)",
+                // group_label is html-clean (through format or explicit
+                // escaping if format failed), can inject straight into HTML
+                $group_column.html(_.str.sprintf("%s (%d)",
                     group_label, group.length));
 
                 if (group.length && group.openable) {