diff --git a/app/controllers/topics_controller.rb b/app/controllers/topics_controller.rb
index 7e0e8a58f8c..b6ea3f4d019 100644
--- a/app/controllers/topics_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/topics_controller.rb
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ class TopicsController < ApplicationController
       begin
         RateLimiter.new(current_user, "print-topic-per-hour", SiteSetting.max_prints_per_hour_per_user, 1.hour).performed! unless @guardian.is_admin?
       rescue RateLimiter::LimitExceeded
-        render_json_error(I18n.t("rate_limiter.slow_down"))
+        return render_json_error I18n.t("rate_limiter.slow_down")
       end
     end