diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 52634fb2458..0d86377d89b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v7.0.0-alpha2...master[Check the HEAD d
 - Fix k8s pods labels broken schema. {pull}16480[16480]
 - Fix k8s pods annotations broken schema. {pull}16554[16554]
 - Upgrade go-ucfg to latest v0.8.3. {pull}16450{16450}
+- Fix `NewContainerMetadataEnricher` to use default config for kubernetes module. {pull}16857[16857]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/config.go b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/config.go
index 3d3a028d13c..bbded35bf01 100644
--- a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/config.go
+++ b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/config.go
@@ -38,12 +38,11 @@ type AddResourceMetadataConfig struct {
 	Namespace *common.Config `config:"namespace"`
 }
 
-func defaultConfig() Config {
-	return Config{
-		IncludeCreatorMetadata: true,
-		LabelsDedot:            true,
-		AnnotationsDedot:       true,
-	}
+// InitDefaults initializes the defaults for the config.
+func (c *Config) InitDefaults() {
+	c.IncludeCreatorMetadata = true
+	c.LabelsDedot = true
+	c.AnnotationsDedot = true
 }
 
 // Unmarshal unpacks a Config into the metagen Config
diff --git a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource.go b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource.go
index d9610a32f37..e4f4b8ca028 100644
--- a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource.go
+++ b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource.go
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ type Resource struct {
 
 // NewResourceMetadataGenerator creates a metadata generator for a generic resource
 func NewResourceMetadataGenerator(cfg *common.Config) *Resource {
-	config := defaultConfig()
+	var config Config
 	config.Unmarshal(cfg)
 
 	return &Resource{
diff --git a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource_test.go b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource_test.go
index 01e7280a4f5..6df542742f0 100644
--- a/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource_test.go
+++ b/libbeat/common/kubernetes/metadata/resource_test.go
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ import (
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/types"
 
+	"github.com/elastic/go-ucfg"
+
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/v7/libbeat/common"
 	"github.com/elastic/beats/v7/libbeat/common/kubernetes"
 )
@@ -109,7 +111,8 @@ func TestResource_Generate(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 	}
 
-	cfg := defaultConfig()
+	var cfg Config
+	ucfg.New().Unpack(&cfg)
 	metagen := &Resource{
 		config: &cfg,
 	}