diff --git a/gson/pom.xml b/gson/pom.xml
index 7ecd2c980f..f36db3363c 100644
--- a/gson/pom.xml
+++ b/gson/pom.xml
@@ -38,6 +38,17 @@
   </properties>
 
   <dependencies>
+    <!-- This dependency can be considered optional; omitting it during runtime will most likely
+      not cause any issues. However, it is not declared with `<optional>true</optional>` because
+      that can lead to cryptic compiler warnings for consumers, and to be on the safe side in case
+      there are actually issues which could occur when the dependency is missing at runtime.
+      See also discussion at https://github.com/google/gson/pull/2320#issuecomment-1455233938 -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.google.errorprone</groupId>
+      <artifactId>error_prone_annotations</artifactId>
+      <version>2.18.0</version>
+    </dependency>
+
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a8cd071608..c65ed56f45 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -85,18 +85,6 @@
     </dependencies>
   </dependencyManagement>
 
-  <dependencies>
-    <!-- Error Prone Annotations is only directly used by gson module, but since this is an optional
-      dependency and other modules depend on gson module they also need the dependency to avoid
-      compiler warnings, see also comments on https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-6365854 -->
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>com.google.errorprone</groupId>
-      <artifactId>error_prone_annotations</artifactId>
-      <version>2.18.0</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-    </dependency>
-  </dependencies>
-
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>