diff --git a/project/plugins.sbt b/project/plugins.sbt
index 135a0d19..59e9f1bf 100644
--- a/project/plugins.sbt
+++ b/project/plugins.sbt
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+lazy val plugins = (project in file(".")).settings(
+  scalaVersion := "2.12.17", // TODO: remove when upgraded to sbt 1.8.0, see https://github.com/sbt/sbt/pull/7021
+)
 addSbtPlugin("com.typesafe.play" % "sbt-plugin"   % "2.9.0-M2")
 addSbtPlugin("com.typesafe.sbt"  % "sbt-digest"   % "1.1.4")
 addSbtPlugin("com.typesafe.sbt"  % "sbt-gzip"     % "1.0.2")