diff --git a/src/libs/002_core_globals.sh b/src/libs/002_core_globals.sh
index f87a610..7380634 100644
--- a/src/libs/002_core_globals.sh
+++ b/src/libs/002_core_globals.sh
@@ -49,8 +49,7 @@ show_usage() {
 		--batch json		produce comprehensive JSON output with system, CPU, and vulnerability details
 		--batch json-terse	produce a terse JSON array of per-CVE results (legacy format)
 		--batch nrpe		produce machine readable output formatted for NRPE
-		--batch prometheus      produce Prometheus metrics (smc_* schema, recommended)
-		--batch prometheus-legacy  produce legacy Prometheus output (specex_vuln_status, deprecated)
+		--batch prometheus      produce Prometheus metrics (smc_* schema)
 
 		--variant VARIANT	specify which variant you'd like to check, by default all variants are checked.
 					can be used multiple times (e.g. --variant 3a --variant l1tf)
diff --git a/src/libs/230_util_optparse.sh b/src/libs/230_util_optparse.sh
index 4342655..254ee3b 100644
--- a/src/libs/230_util_optparse.sh
+++ b/src/libs/230_util_optparse.sh
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ while [ -n "${1:-}" ]; do
         opt_no_color=1
         shift
         case "$1" in
-            text | short | nrpe | json | json-terse | prometheus | prometheus-legacy)
+            text | short | nrpe | json | json-terse | prometheus)
                 opt_batch_format="$1"
                 shift
                 ;;
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ while [ -n "${1:-}" ]; do
             '') ;;  # allow nothing at all
             *)
                 echo "$0: error: unknown batch format '$1'" >&2
-                echo "$0: error: --batch expects a format from: text, short, nrpe, json, json-terse, prometheus, prometheus-legacy" >&2
+                echo "$0: error: --batch expects a format from: text, short, nrpe, json, json-terse, prometheus" >&2
                 exit 255
                 ;;
         esac
diff --git a/src/libs/250_output_emitters.sh b/src/libs/250_output_emitters.sh
index 31116e7..229cd92 100644
--- a/src/libs/250_output_emitters.sh
+++ b/src/libs/250_output_emitters.sh
@@ -341,18 +341,7 @@ _emit_nrpe() {
     esac
 }
 
-# Append a CVE result as a legacy Prometheus metric to the batch output buffer
-# Args: $1=cve $2=aka $3=status $4=description
-# Sets: g_prometheus_output
-# Callers: pvulnstatus
-_emit_prometheus_legacy() {
-    local esc_info
-    # escape backslashes and double quotes for Prometheus label values
-    esc_info=$(printf '%s' "$4" | sed -e 's/\\/\\\\/g' -e 's/"/\\"/g')
-    g_prometheus_output="${g_prometheus_output:+$g_prometheus_output\n}specex_vuln_status{name=\"$2\",cve=\"$1\",status=\"$3\",info=\"$esc_info\"} 1"
-}
-
-# Append a CVE result as a Prometheus gauge to the new-format batch output buffer
+# Append a CVE result as a Prometheus gauge to the batch output buffer
 # Status is encoded numerically: 0=not_vulnerable, 1=vulnerable, 2=unknown
 # Args: $1=cve $2=aka $3=status(UNK|VULN|OK) $4=description
 # Sets: g_smc_vuln_output, g_smc_ok_count, g_smc_vuln_count, g_smc_unk_count
@@ -491,7 +480,6 @@ pvulnstatus() {
             json-terse) _emit_json_terse "$1" "$aka" "$2" "$3" ;;
             nrpe) _emit_nrpe "$1" "$aka" "$2" "$3" ;;
             prometheus) _emit_prometheus "$1" "$aka" "$2" "$3" ;;
-            prometheus-legacy) _emit_prometheus_legacy "$1" "$aka" "$2" "$3" ;;
             *)
                 echo "$0: error: invalid batch format '$opt_batch_format' specified" >&2
                 exit 255
diff --git a/src/main.sh b/src/main.sh
index b9e15ef..52e0b60 100644
--- a/src/main.sh
+++ b/src/main.sh
@@ -163,12 +163,6 @@ if [ "$opt_batch" = 1 ] && [ "$opt_batch_format" = "json" ]; then
     _pr_echo 0 "$_json_final"
 fi
 
-if [ "$opt_batch" = 1 ] && [ "$opt_batch_format" = "prometheus-legacy" ]; then
-    echo "# TYPE specex_vuln_status untyped"
-    echo "# HELP specex_vuln_status Exposure of system to speculative execution vulnerabilities"
-    printf "%b\n" "$g_prometheus_output"
-fi
-
 if [ "$opt_batch" = 1 ] && [ "$opt_batch_format" = "prometheus" ]; then
     prom_run_as_root='false'
     [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] && prom_run_as_root='true'