diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-netlink/netlink-message-rtnl.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-netlink/netlink-message-rtnl.c
index fb11c7e02b..9184c43fec 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-netlink/netlink-message-rtnl.c
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-netlink/netlink-message-rtnl.c
@@ -892,7 +892,7 @@ int sd_rtnl_message_new_addrlabel(
                 return r;
 
         if (nlmsg_type == RTM_NEWADDRLABEL)
-                (*ret)->hdr->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_CREATE | NLM_F_EXCL;
+                (*ret)->hdr->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_CREATE | NLM_F_REPLACE;
 
         addrlabel = NLMSG_DATA((*ret)->hdr);
 
@@ -1143,7 +1143,7 @@ int sd_rtnl_message_new_traffic_control(
                 return r;
 
         if (IN_SET(nlmsg_type, RTM_NEWQDISC, RTM_NEWTCLASS))
-                (*ret)->hdr->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_CREATE | NLM_F_EXCL;
+                (*ret)->hdr->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_CREATE | NLM_F_REPLACE;
 
         tcm = NLMSG_DATA((*ret)->hdr);
         tcm->tcm_ifindex = ifindex;
@@ -1212,7 +1212,7 @@ int sd_rtnl_message_new_mdb(
                 return r;
 
         if (nlmsg_type == RTM_NEWMDB)
-                (*ret)->hdr->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_CREATE | NLM_F_EXCL;
+                (*ret)->hdr->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_CREATE | NLM_F_REPLACE;
 
         bpm = NLMSG_DATA((*ret)->hdr);
         bpm->family = AF_BRIDGE;
diff --git a/test/test-network/systemd-networkd-tests.py b/test/test-network/systemd-networkd-tests.py
index 8a2c5af398..1b61038d09 100755
--- a/test/test-network/systemd-networkd-tests.py
+++ b/test/test-network/systemd-networkd-tests.py
@@ -4489,6 +4489,17 @@ class NetworkdTCTests(unittest.TestCase, Utilities):
         self.assertIn('rtt 1s', output)
         self.assertIn('ack-filter-aggressive', output)
 
+        # Test for replacing existing qdisc. See #31226.
+        with open(os.path.join(network_unit_dir, '25-qdisc-cake.network'), mode='a', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+            f.write('Bandwidth=250M\n')
+
+        networkctl_reload()
+        self.wait_online('dummy98:routable')
+
+        output = check_output('tc qdisc show dev dummy98')
+        print(output)
+        self.assertIn('bandwidth 250Mbit', output)
+
     @expectedFailureIfModuleIsNotAvailable('sch_codel')
     def test_qdisc_codel(self):
         copy_network_unit('25-qdisc-codel.network', '12-dummy.netdev')