diff --git a/lib/setopt.c b/lib/setopt.c
index aa8043dc96..885fa8e75d 100644
--- a/lib/setopt.c
+++ b/lib/setopt.c
@@ -3070,9 +3070,7 @@ CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *d, CURLoption tag, ...)
   result = Curl_vsetopt(data, tag, arg);
 
   va_end(arg);
-#ifdef DEBUGBUILD
   if(result == CURLE_BAD_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT)
-    infof(data, "setopt arg 0x%x returned CURLE_BAD_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT", tag);
-#endif
+    failf(data, "setopt 0x%x got bad argument", tag);
   return result;
 }