diff --git a/federationapi/routing/join.go b/federationapi/routing/join.go
index 4f2ccf5a5..cbdeca51e 100644
--- a/federationapi/routing/join.go
+++ b/federationapi/routing/join.go
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ func MakeJoin(
 		case spec.ErrorNotFound:
 			code = http.StatusNotFound
 		case spec.ErrorUnableToAuthoriseJoin:
-			code = http.StatusBadRequest
+			fallthrough // http.StatusBadRequest
 		case spec.ErrorBadJSON:
 			code = http.StatusBadRequest
 		}