diff --git a/include/haproxy/defaults.h b/include/haproxy/defaults.h
index d4721a794..80b2e6431 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/defaults.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/defaults.h
@@ -390,6 +390,15 @@
 #define HAPROXY_MEMMAX 0
 #endif
 
+/* For USE_ZLIB, DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM may be set to a hard-coded value that will
+ * preset a maxzlibmem value. Just leave it to zero for other configurations.
+ * Note that it's expressed in megabytes.
+ */
+#if !defined(DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM) || !defined(USE_ZLIB)
+#undef DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM
+#define DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM 0
+#endif
+
 /* Pools are always enabled unless explicitly disabled. When disabled, the
  * calls are directly passed to the underlying OS functions.
  */
diff --git a/src/compression.c b/src/compression.c
index 8095ecb99..3ce2a6005 100644
--- a/src/compression.c
+++ b/src/compression.c
@@ -713,14 +713,6 @@ static struct cfg_kw_list cfg_kws = {ILH, {
 
 INITCALL1(STG_REGISTER, cfg_register_keywords, &cfg_kws);
 
-__attribute__((constructor))
-static void __comp_fetch_init(void)
-{
-#if defined(USE_ZLIB) && defined(DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM)
-	global.maxzlibmem = DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM * 1024U * 1024U;
-#endif
-}
-
 static void comp_register_build_opts(void)
 {
 	char *ptr = NULL;
diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index ddb23e2c8..6fbe85bd3 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ struct global global = {
 	.nbthread = 0,
 	.req_count = 0,
 	.logsrvs = LIST_HEAD_INIT(global.logsrvs),
-	.maxzlibmem = 0,
+	.maxzlibmem = DEFAULT_MAXZLIBMEM * 1024U * 1024U,
 	.comp_rate_lim = 0,
 	.ssl_server_verify = SSL_SERVER_VERIFY_REQUIRED,
 	.unix_bind = {