diff --git a/lib/setopt.c b/lib/setopt.c
index b8a632748c..f93c6acaca 100644
--- a/lib/setopt.c
+++ b/lib/setopt.c
@@ -1515,13 +1515,10 @@ static CURLcode setopt_pointers(struct Curl_easy *data, CURLoption option,
 
 #ifdef USE_HTTP2
   case CURLOPT_STREAM_DEPENDS:
-  case CURLOPT_STREAM_DEPENDS_E: {
-    struct Curl_easy *dep = va_arg(param, struct Curl_easy *);
-    if(!dep || GOOD_EASY_HANDLE(dep))
-      return Curl_data_priority_add_child(dep, data,
-                                          option == CURLOPT_STREAM_DEPENDS_E);
+  case CURLOPT_STREAM_DEPENDS_E:
+    /* not doing stream dependencies any longer, but accept options
+     * for backward compatibility */
     break;
-  }
 #endif
 
   default: