diff --git a/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImpl.java b/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImpl.java
index 5ebe3b1100..f4a3dd9c19 100644
--- a/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImpl.java
+++ b/clients/http-support/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImpl.java
@@ -5,9 +5,9 @@
 package org.eclipse.sw360.http;
 
 import java.net.URI;
-import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
 import java.net.http.HttpRequest.BodyPublisher;
+import java.net.http.HttpRequest.BodyPublishers;
 import java.util.function.Consumer;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ class NewRequestBuilderImpl implements RequestBuilder {
     /**
      * The body of the request.
      */
-
     private BodyPublisher body;
 
     /**
@@ -67,11 +66,7 @@ public RequestBuilder method(Method method) {
 
     @Override
     public RequestBuilder uri(String uri) {
-        try {
-            requestBuilder.uri(new URI(uri));
-        } catch (URISyntaxException e) {
-            // nothing to do
-        }
+        requestBuilder.uri(URI.create(uri));
         return this;
     }
 
@@ -110,8 +105,8 @@ public RequestBuilder multiPart(String name, Consumer<RequestBodyBuilder> partPr
      * @return the request constructed by this builder
      */
     public HttpRequest build() {
-        BodyPublisher requestBody = getBody();
-        return requestBuilder.method(httpMethod, requestBody).header("Content-Type", "application/json").build();
+        BodyPublisher requestBody = (getBody() != null) ? getBody() : BodyPublishers.noBody();
+        return requestBuilder.method(httpMethod, requestBody).build();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/clients/http-support/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImplTest.java b/clients/http-support/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImplTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..da24e5cc9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/clients/http-support/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/http/NewRequestBuilderImplTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) Bosch.IO GmbH 2020.
+ *
+ * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+ * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v2.0
+ * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v20.html
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+ */
+package org.eclipse.sw360.http;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+
+/**
+ * Unit test class for {@code NewRequestBuilderImpl}. This class focuses on
+ * request-building semantics for the native HttpClient variant.
+ */
+public class NewRequestBuilderImplTest {
+    /**
+     * The builder to be tested.
+     */
+    private NewRequestBuilderImpl requestBuilder;
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() {
+        ObjectMapper mapper = mock(ObjectMapper.class);
+        requestBuilder = new NewRequestBuilderImpl(mapper);
+    }
+
+    @Test(expected = IllegalArgumentException.class)
+    public void testInvalidUriRejected() {
+        requestBuilder.uri("://invalid-uri");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testBuildGetWithoutBody() {
+        requestBuilder.uri("http://example.org/releases");
+        HttpRequest request = requestBuilder.build();
+
+        assertThat(request.method()).isEqualTo("GET");
+        assertThat(request.headers().firstValue("Content-Type")).isEmpty();
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testBuildPostWithoutBody() {
+        requestBuilder.uri("http://example.org/releases");
+        requestBuilder.method(RequestBuilder.Method.POST);
+        HttpRequest request = requestBuilder.build();
+
+        assertThat(request.method()).isEqualTo("POST");
+        assertThat(request.headers().firstValue("Content-Type")).isEmpty();
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testDoesNotOverrideExplicitContentType() {
+        requestBuilder.uri("http://example.org/releases");
+        requestBuilder.header("Content-Type", "text/plain");
+        requestBuilder.body(body -> body.string("payload", "text/plain"));
+        HttpRequest request = requestBuilder.build();
+
+        assertThat(request.headers().firstValue("Content-Type")).hasValue("text/plain");
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file