diff --git a/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/component.go b/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/component.go
index 13ca88c56..5d96b32db 100644
--- a/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/component.go
+++ b/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/component.go
@@ -128,10 +128,6 @@ func (c *componentAccessImpl) HasVersion(vers string) (bool, error) {
 }
 
 func (c *componentAccessImpl) LookupVersion(version string) (*repocpi.ComponentVersionAccessInfo, error) {
-	// LookupVersion '0.0.1-20250108132333.build-af79499' would fail with:
-	// unable to unref last: unable to cleanup component version [%v] while unref last: closing component version [%v]: check failed: component version [%v] is invalid
-	// This is because the version comes from an artifact tag, which doesn't allow '+' characters, which we replace with '.build-' during the push
-	version = toVersion(version) // ensure the cv doesn't contain '.build-'
 	tag, err := toTag(version)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/componentversion.go b/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/componentversion.go
index e0dd0f547..b36470f1a 100644
--- a/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/componentversion.go
+++ b/api/ocm/extensions/repositories/genericocireg/componentversion.go
@@ -102,6 +102,14 @@ func (c *ComponentVersionContainer) SetReadOnly() {
 
 func (c *ComponentVersionContainer) Check() error {
 	if c.version != c.GetDescriptor().Version {
+		// check if version contained '+' which has been replaced by META_SEPARATOR to create OCI compliant tag
+		if replaced, _ := toTag(c.GetDescriptor().Version); replaced != c.GetDescriptor().Version && replaced == c.version {
+			Logger(c.GetContext()).Warn(fmt.Sprintf(
+				"checked version %q contains %q, this is discouraged and you should prefer the original component version %q", c.version, META_SEPARATOR, c.GetDescriptor().Version))
+			return nil
+		} else {
+			return errors.ErrInvalid("component version", c.GetDescriptor().Version)
+		}
 		return errors.ErrInvalid("component version", c.GetDescriptor().Version)
 	}
 	if c.comp.name != c.GetDescriptor().Name {