diff --git a/copy/apm-data/input/elasticapm/processor.go b/copy/apm-data/input/elasticapm/processor.go
index 0994687acdf..c7c5eaed735 100644
--- a/copy/apm-data/input/elasticapm/processor.go
+++ b/copy/apm-data/input/elasticapm/processor.go
@@ -321,11 +321,6 @@ func (p *Processor) handleStream(
 
 // processBatch processes the batch and returns the events to the pool after it's been processed.
 func (p *Processor) processBatch(ctx context.Context, processor modelpb.BatchProcessor, batch *modelpb.Batch) error {
-	defer func() {
-		for i := range *batch {
-			(*batch)[i].ReturnToVTPool()
-		}
-	}()
 	return processor.ProcessBatch(ctx, batch)
 }
 
diff --git a/x-pack/apm-server/sampling/processor.go b/x-pack/apm-server/sampling/processor.go
index 94b3ae3df99..8828624868a 100644
--- a/x-pack/apm-server/sampling/processor.go
+++ b/x-pack/apm-server/sampling/processor.go
@@ -545,11 +545,6 @@ func (p *Processor) Run() error {
 				if err := p.config.BatchProcessor.ProcessBatch(gracefulContext, &events); err != nil {
 					p.logger.With(logp.Error(err)).Warn("failed to report events")
 				}
-
-				for i := range events {
-					events[i].ReturnToVTPool()
-					events[i] = nil // not required but ensure that there is no ref to the freed event
-				}
 			}
 		}
 	})