diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/pubsub/kafka/sink/CloudPubSubSinkTask.java b/src/main/java/com/google/pubsub/kafka/sink/CloudPubSubSinkTask.java
index 28c74ce0..ce5fe152 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/pubsub/kafka/sink/CloudPubSubSinkTask.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/pubsub/kafka/sink/CloudPubSubSinkTask.java
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ private boolean useFlowControl() {
     // only enable flow control if at least one flow control config has been set
     return maxOutstandingRequestBytes
             != CloudPubSubSinkConnector.DEFAULT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_REQUEST_BYTES
-        || maxOutstandingRequestBytes != CloudPubSubSinkConnector.DEFAULT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_MESSAGES;
+        || maxOutstandingMessages != CloudPubSubSinkConnector.DEFAULT_MAX_OUTSTANDING_MESSAGES;
   }
 
   @Override