diff --git a/backend/moderation/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/moderation/db/ModerationDatabaseHandler.java b/backend/moderation/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/moderation/db/ModerationDatabaseHandler.java
index 463d33d458..e33df14818 100644
--- a/backend/moderation/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/moderation/db/ModerationDatabaseHandler.java
+++ b/backend/moderation/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/moderation/db/ModerationDatabaseHandler.java
@@ -177,7 +177,10 @@ public ModerationRequest getRequest(String requestId) {
     public List<ModerationRequest> getRequestByDocumentId(String documentId) {
         List<ModerationRequest> requests = CommonUtils.nullToEmptyList(repository.getRequestsByDocumentId(documentId));
 
-        Collections.sort(requests, CommonUtils.compareByTimeStampDescending());
+        if (!requests.isEmpty()) {
+            // nullToEmptyList returns ImmutableList which is not sortable.
+            requests.sort(CommonUtils.compareByTimeStampDescending());
+        }
 
         return requests;
     }
diff --git a/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java b/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java
index d4d700f4ed..18778a019a 100644
--- a/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java
+++ b/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java
@@ -905,8 +905,13 @@ public Component convertToEmbeddedComponent(Component component) {
         embeddedComponent.setMainLicenseIds(component.getMainLicenseIds());
         embeddedComponent.setVcs(component.getVcs());
         if (CommonUtils.isNotNullEmptyOrWhitespace(component.getDefaultVendorId())) {
-            Vendor defaultVendor = vendorService.getVendorById(component.getDefaultVendorId());
-            embeddedComponent.setDefaultVendor(defaultVendor);
+            try {
+                Vendor defaultVendor = vendorService.getVendorById(component.getDefaultVendorId());
+                embeddedComponent.setDefaultVendor(defaultVendor);
+            } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+                LOGGER.error("Failed to retrieve default vendor '{}' from SW360 database.",
+                        component.getDefaultVendorId(), e);
+            }
         }
         embeddedComponent.setType(null);
         return embeddedComponent;