diff --git a/.github/renovate.json b/.github/renovate.json
index b0d263c0..05ac19f6 100644
--- a/.github/renovate.json
+++ b/.github/renovate.json
@@ -13,11 +13,10 @@
       "versioning": "fixed"
     },
     {
-      "description": "Lock the Schema Validator to v1.x.y to avoid major issues with v2+",
+      "description": "Keep json-schema-validator on v1.x because JsonSchemaValidationService still uses the pre-v3 networknt API and v2/v3 are not drop-in compatible",
       "matchManagers": ["gradle"],
-      "matchPackageNames": ["json-schema-validator"],
-      "matchPackagePrefixes": "com.networknt",
-      "matchUpdateTypes": ["minor", "patch"]
+      "matchPackageNames": ["com.networknt:json-schema-validator"],
+      "allowedVersions": "<2.0.0"
     },
     {
       "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 7efcf1b7..64fcfa23 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -367,9 +367,6 @@ dependencies {
 
   implementation 'com.launchdarkly:launchdarkly-java-server-sdk:7.13.2'
 
-  implementation 'com.networknt:json-schema-validator:2.0.1'
-  implementation 'com.jayway.jsonpath:json-path:3.0.0'
-
   implementation 'io.rest-assured:rest-assured:6.0.0'
   implementation 'org.flywaydb:flyway-core:12.3.0'
   runtimeOnly 'org.flywaydb:flyway-database-postgresql:12.3.0', {
@@ -389,8 +386,6 @@ dependencies {
 
   implementation 'org.mapstruct:mapstruct:1.6.3'
   annotationProcessor 'org.mapstruct:mapstruct-processor:1.6.3'
-
-
   implementation 'com.networknt:json-schema-validator:1.5.9'
   implementation 'com.jayway.jsonpath:json-path:3.0.0'
   testImplementation 'com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-jsr310'