diff --git a/ledger-service/db-backend/src/main/scala/com/digitalasset/http/dbbackend/Queries.scala b/ledger-service/db-backend/src/main/scala/com/digitalasset/http/dbbackend/Queries.scala
index 389580453f..ec0975f316 100644
--- a/ledger-service/db-backend/src/main/scala/com/digitalasset/http/dbbackend/Queries.scala
+++ b/ledger-service/db-backend/src/main/scala/com/digitalasset/http/dbbackend/Queries.scala
@@ -366,14 +366,13 @@ sealed abstract class Queries(tablePrefix: String, tpIdCacheMaxEntries: Long)(im
         },
         fr" OR ",
       )
-    // we effectively shadow Mark because Scala 2.12 doesn't quite get
-    // that it should use the GADT type equality otherwise
-    def goQuery[Mark0: Read](
+    @nowarn("cat=unused&msg=MarkR in method goQuery.*is never used") // false negative
+    def goQuery(
         tpid: Fragment
-    ): Query0[DBContract[Mark0, JsValue, JsValue, Vector[String]]] = {
+    )(implicit MarkR: Read[Mark]): Query0[DBContract[Mark, JsValue, JsValue, Vector[String]]] = {
       val q = query(tpid, queriesCondition)
       q.query[
-        (String, Mark0, Key, Option[String], JsValue, SigsObs, SigsObs, Agreement)
+        (String, Mark, Key, Option[String], JsValue, SigsObs, SigsObs, Agreement)
       ].map { case (cid, tpid, rawKey, keyHash, payload, signatories, observers, rawAgreement) =>
         DBContract(
           contractId = cid,
@@ -391,9 +390,9 @@ sealed abstract class Queries(tablePrefix: String, tpIdCacheMaxEntries: Long)(im
     trackMatchIndices match {
       case MatchedQueryMarker.ByInt =>
         val tpid = projectedIndex(queries.zipWithIndex, tpidSelector = tpidSelector)
-        goQuery[MatchedQueries](tpid)
+        goQuery(tpid)
       case MatchedQueryMarker.Unused =>
-        goQuery[SurrogateTpId](tpidSelector)
+        goQuery(tpidSelector)
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/ledger-service/http-json-testing/src/main/scala/com/daml/http/util/TestUtil.scala b/ledger-service/http-json-testing/src/main/scala/com/daml/http/util/TestUtil.scala
index 984df8ab97..adc8a530ec 100644
--- a/ledger-service/http-json-testing/src/main/scala/com/daml/http/util/TestUtil.scala
+++ b/ledger-service/http-json-testing/src/main/scala/com/daml/http/util/TestUtil.scala
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ import akka.util.ByteString
 import com.typesafe.scalalogging.LazyLogging
 
 import scala.concurrent.{ExecutionContext, Future}
-import scala.io.Source
 import scala.util.{Failure, Success, Try, Using}
 
 object TestUtil extends LazyLogging {
@@ -29,20 +28,6 @@ object TestUtil extends LazyLogging {
       file
     }
 
-  def readFile(resourcePath: String): String =
-    Try {
-      val source = Source.fromResource(resourcePath)
-      val content = source.getLines().mkString
-      source.close
-      content
-    } match {
-      case Success(value) => value
-      // only needed for Scala 2.12; 2.13 does this itself
-      case Failure(_: NullPointerException) =>
-        throw new java.io.FileNotFoundException(s"resource '$resourcePath' not found in classpath")
-      case Failure(ex) => throw ex
-    }
-
   def getResponseDataBytes(resp: HttpResponse, debug: Boolean = false)(implicit
       mat: Materializer,
       ec: ExecutionContext,