diff --git a/src/instana/propagators/http_propagator.py b/src/instana/propagators/http_propagator.py
index 76ca3114..c6491076 100644
--- a/src/instana/propagators/http_propagator.py
+++ b/src/instana/propagators/http_propagator.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from instana.log import logger
 from instana.propagators.base_propagator import BasePropagator
 from instana.util.ids import define_server_timing, hex_id_limited
+from instana.span_context import SpanContext
 
 from opentelemetry.trace.span import format_span_id
 
@@ -27,7 +28,26 @@ def inject(self, span_context, carrier, disable_w3c_trace_context=False):
             # Suppression `level` made in the child context or in the parent context
             # has priority over any non-suppressed `level` setting
             child_level = int(self.extract_instana_headers(dictionary_carrier)[2] or "1")
-            span_context.level = min(child_level, span_context.level)
+            new_level = min(child_level, span_context.level)
+
+            if new_level != span_context.level:
+                # Create a new span context with the updated level
+                span_context = SpanContext(
+                    trace_id=span_context.trace_id,
+                    span_id=span_context.span_id,
+                    is_remote=span_context.is_remote,
+                    trace_flags=span_context.trace_flags,
+                    trace_state=span_context.trace_state,
+                    level=new_level,
+                    synthetic=span_context.synthetic,
+                    trace_parent=span_context.trace_parent,
+                    instana_ancestor=span_context.instana_ancestor,
+                    long_trace_id=span_context.long_trace_id,
+                    correlation_type=span_context.correlation_type,
+                    correlation_id=span_context.correlation_id,
+                    traceparent=span_context.traceparent,
+                    tracestate=span_context.tracestate
+                )
 
         serializable_level = str(span_context.level)
 
diff --git a/tests/propagators/test_http_propagator.py b/tests/propagators/test_http_propagator.py
index 25b36635..bac0a173 100644
--- a/tests/propagators/test_http_propagator.py
+++ b/tests/propagators/test_http_propagator.py
@@ -340,3 +340,45 @@ def test_w3c_off_x_instana_l_0(
         if "tracestate" in carrier_header.keys():
             assert "tracestate" in downstream_carrier
             assert carrier_header["tracestate"] == downstream_carrier["tracestate"]
+
+    def test_suppression_when_child_level_is_lower(
+        self,
+        _trace_id: int,
+        _span_id: int,
+    ) -> None:
+        """
+        Test that span_context.level is updated when the child level (extracted from carrier) is lower than the current span_context.level.
+        """
+        # Create a span context with level=1
+        original_span_context = SpanContext(
+            trace_id=_trace_id,
+            span_id=_span_id,
+            is_remote=False,
+            level=1,
+        )
+
+        # Create a carrier with level=0 (suppression)
+        carrier_header = {"x-instana-l": "0"}
+
+        # Inject the span context into the carrier
+        self.hptc.inject(original_span_context, carrier_header)
+
+        # Extract the span context from the carrier to verify the level was updated
+        extracted_context = self.hptc.extract(carrier_header)
+
+        # Verify that the level is 0 (suppressed)
+        assert extracted_context.level == 0
+        assert extracted_context.suppression
+
+        # Create a new carrier to test the propagation
+        downstream_carrier = {}
+
+        # Inject the extracted context into the downstream carrier
+        self.hptc.inject(extracted_context, downstream_carrier)
+
+        # Verify that the downstream carrier has the correct level
+        assert downstream_carrier.get("X-INSTANA-L") == "0"
+
+        # Verify that no trace or span IDs are injected when suppressed
+        assert "X-INSTANA-T" not in downstream_carrier
+        assert "X-INSTANA-S" not in downstream_carrier