diff --git a/tsdb/head_test.go b/tsdb/head_test.go
index 56808b9807..c050190330 100644
--- a/tsdb/head_test.go
+++ b/tsdb/head_test.go
@@ -1130,7 +1130,9 @@ func TestHead_WALCheckpointMultiRef(t *testing.T) {
 			cprecs := readTestWAL(t, checkpointDir)
 			recs := readTestWAL(t, w.Dir())
 			recs = append(cprecs, recs...)
-			require.Equal(t, tc.expectedWalEntries, recs)
+
+			// Use testutil.RequireEqual which handles labels properly with dedupelabels
+			testutil.RequireEqual(t, tc.expectedWalEntries, recs)
 		})
 	}
 }