diff --git a/cta.spec.in b/cta.spec.in
index 4f28cbf68630d1f37e595db9dd9b59db6f7c3ff0..8cd97055a5be7da1274acb616f0a22fad10e18ef 100644
--- a/cta.spec.in
+++ b/cta.spec.in
@@ -230,6 +230,8 @@ Requires: oracle-instantclient12.2-basic
 Requires: librados2 = %{radosVersion}
 Requires: mariadb-libs
 Requires: postgresql-libs
+# Explicity require protobuf3 to avoid clash with eos-protobuf3
+Requires: protobuf3
 Requires: zeromq
 %description -n cta-lib
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