diff --git a/arch/s390/boot/ipl_parm.c b/arch/s390/boot/ipl_parm.c
index 92ebc4a58fe2..1add096e09a6 100644
--- a/arch/s390/boot/ipl_parm.c
+++ b/arch/s390/boot/ipl_parm.c
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ void parse_boot_command_line(void)
 		if (!strcmp(param, "vmalloc") && val)
 			vmalloc_size = round_up(memparse(val, NULL), PAGE_SIZE);
 
-		if (!strcmp(param, "dfltcc")) {
+		if (!strcmp(param, "dfltcc") && val) {
 			if (!strcmp(val, "off"))
 				zlib_dfltcc_support = ZLIB_DFLTCC_DISABLED;
 			else if (!strcmp(val, "on"))