diff --git a/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientHandler.java b/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientHandler.java
index 792d76b1358..2891579d55c 100644
--- a/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientHandler.java
+++ b/netty/src/main/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientHandler.java
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2ConnectionEncoder;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2FrameReader;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2FrameWriter;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2HeadersEncoder;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2LocalFlowController;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2RemoteFlowController;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2CodecUtil;
@@ -69,6 +70,7 @@
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2FrameWriter;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2Headers;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2HeadersDecoder;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2HeadersEncoder;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2InboundFrameLogger;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2OutboundFrameLogger;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2Settings;
@@ -150,7 +152,9 @@ static NettyClientHandler newHandler(
     Preconditions.checkArgument(maxHeaderListSize > 0, "maxHeaderListSize must be positive");
     Http2HeadersDecoder headersDecoder = new GrpcHttp2ClientHeadersDecoder(maxHeaderListSize);
     Http2FrameReader frameReader = new DefaultHttp2FrameReader(headersDecoder);
-    Http2FrameWriter frameWriter = new DefaultHttp2FrameWriter();
+    Http2HeadersEncoder encoder = new DefaultHttp2HeadersEncoder(
+        Http2HeadersEncoder.NEVER_SENSITIVE, false, 16, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
+    Http2FrameWriter frameWriter = new DefaultHttp2FrameWriter(encoder);
     Http2Connection connection = new DefaultHttp2Connection(false);
     WeightedFairQueueByteDistributor dist = new WeightedFairQueueByteDistributor(connection);
     dist.allocationQuantum(16 * 1024); // Make benchmarks fast again.
diff --git a/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java b/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java
index 61dfcb15ecf..5ddfc10d98a 100644
--- a/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java
+++ b/netty/src/test/java/io/grpc/netty/NettyClientTransportTest.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
+import com.google.common.base.Strings;
 import com.google.common.base.Ticker;
 import com.google.common.io.ByteStreams;
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.SettableFuture;
@@ -69,6 +70,7 @@
 import io.grpc.netty.NettyChannelBuilder.LocalSocketPicker;
 import io.grpc.netty.NettyTestUtil.TrackingObjectPoolForTest;
 import io.grpc.testing.TlsTesting;
+import io.netty.buffer.ByteBuf;
 import io.netty.channel.Channel;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelConfig;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelDuplexHandler;
@@ -76,6 +78,7 @@
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandler;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandlerContext;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelOption;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelPromise;
 import io.netty.channel.EventLoopGroup;
 import io.netty.channel.ReflectiveChannelFactory;
 import io.netty.channel.local.LocalChannel;
@@ -92,6 +95,7 @@
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.net.SocketAddress;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -101,6 +105,7 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLException;
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;
@@ -538,6 +543,46 @@ public void maxHeaderListSizeShouldBeEnforcedOnClient() throws Exception {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void huffmanCodingShouldNotBePerformed() throws Exception {
+    String longStringOfA = Strings.repeat("a", 128);
+
+    negotiator = ProtocolNegotiators.serverPlaintext();
+    startServer();
+
+    NettyClientTransport transport = newTransport(ProtocolNegotiators.plaintext(),
+        DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE, GrpcUtil.DEFAULT_MAX_HEADER_LIST_SIZE, null, false,
+        TimeUnit.SECONDS.toNanos(10L), TimeUnit.SECONDS.toNanos(1L),
+        new ReflectiveChannelFactory<>(NioSocketChannel.class), group);
+
+    Metadata headers = new Metadata();
+    headers.put(Metadata.Key.of("test", Metadata.ASCII_STRING_MARSHALLER),
+        longStringOfA);
+
+    callMeMaybe(transport.start(clientTransportListener));
+
+    AtomicBoolean foundExpectedHeaderBytes = new AtomicBoolean(false);
+
+    transport.channel().pipeline().addFirst(new ChannelDuplexHandler() {
+      @Override
+      public void write(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Object msg, ChannelPromise promise)
+          throws Exception {
+        if (msg instanceof ByteBuf) {
+          if (((ByteBuf) msg).toString(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).contains(longStringOfA)) {
+            foundExpectedHeaderBytes.set(true);
+          }
+        }
+        super.write(ctx, msg, promise);
+      }
+    });
+
+    new Rpc(transport, headers).halfClose().waitForResponse();
+
+    if (!foundExpectedHeaderBytes.get()) {
+      fail("expected to find UTF-8 encoded 'a's in the header");
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void maxHeaderListSizeShouldBeEnforcedOnServer() throws Exception {
     startServer(100, 1);