diff --git a/app/controllers/secrets_controller.rb b/app/controllers/secrets_controller.rb
index c61eb5fe05..0030c5d1e9 100644
--- a/app/controllers/secrets_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/secrets_controller.rb
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ def batch
     end
 
     render(json: result)
+  rescue JSON::GeneratorError
+    raise Errors::Conjur::BadSecretEncoding, result
   rescue Encoding::UndefinedConversionError
     raise Errors::Conjur::BadSecretEncoding, result
   rescue Exceptions::RecordNotFound => e
diff --git a/cucumber/api/features/secrets_batch.feature b/cucumber/api/features/secrets_batch.feature
index 1f156c5014..20ff61b6e2 100644
--- a/cucumber/api/features/secrets_batch.feature
+++ b/cucumber/api/features/secrets_batch.feature
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ Feature: Batch retrieval of secrets
     When I GET "/secrets?variable_ids=cucumber:variable:secret3"
     Then the HTTP response status code is 406
 
-  @negative @acceptance
+  @negative @smoke
   Scenario: Fails with 406 on retrieval of multiple secrets with improper header
     Given I create a binary secret value for resource "cucumber:variable:secret3"
     And I add the secret value "v2" to the resource "cucumber:variable:secret2"