diff --git a/jsonmerge-core/pom.xml b/jsonmerge-core/pom.xml
index c24b1d5..ee50ea3 100644
--- a/jsonmerge-core/pom.xml
+++ b/jsonmerge-core/pom.xml
@@ -79,6 +79,12 @@
             <artifactId>vertx-core</artifactId>
             <version>${vertx.version}</version>
             <optional>true</optional>
+            <exclusions>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>netty-handler</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>