diff --git a/src/rgw/rgw_op.cc b/src/rgw/rgw_op.cc
index 57efd040ec0..19d2dbe8548 100644
--- a/src/rgw/rgw_op.cc
+++ b/src/rgw/rgw_op.cc
@@ -3424,7 +3424,7 @@ void RGWPutACLs::execute()
   }
 
   if (!parser.parse(data, len, 1)) {
-    op_ret = -EACCES;
+    op_ret = -EINVAL;
     return;
   }
   policy = static_cast<RGWAccessControlPolicy_S3 *>(parser.find_first("AccessControlPolicy"));