diff --git a/kafka-exporter/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializer.java b/kafka-exporter/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializer.java
index 73bb0a438..4c5ff7112 100644
--- a/kafka-exporter/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializer.java
+++ b/kafka-exporter/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializer.java
@@ -12,10 +12,11 @@
 import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Deserializer;
 
 public class SpanDataDeserializer implements Deserializer<ExportTraceServiceRequest> {
+  @SuppressWarnings("NullAway")
   @Override
   public ExportTraceServiceRequest deserialize(String topic, byte[] data) {
     if (Objects.isNull(data)) {
-      return ExportTraceServiceRequest.getDefaultInstance();
+      return null;
     }
     try {
       return ExportTraceServiceRequest.parseFrom(data);
diff --git a/kafka-exporter/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializerTest.java b/kafka-exporter/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializerTest.java
index f8a1b88c7..395fd357d 100644
--- a/kafka-exporter/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializerTest.java
+++ b/kafka-exporter/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/contrib/kafka/SpanDataDeserializerTest.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNull;
 
 import io.opentelemetry.proto.collector.trace.v1.ExportTraceServiceRequest;
 import io.opentelemetry.proto.resource.v1.Resource;
@@ -42,7 +43,7 @@ void deserialize() {
 
   @Test
   void deserializeNullData() {
-    assertNotNull(testSubject.deserialize("test-topic", null));
+    assertNull(testSubject.deserialize("test-topic", null));
   }
 
   @Test