diff --git a/toolkit/components/search/schema/search-config-v2-schema.json b/toolkit/components/search/schema/search-config-v2-schema.json
index 8b941e59381a..05515a8ed26d 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/search/schema/search-config-v2-schema.json
+++ b/toolkit/components/search/schema/search-config-v2-schema.json
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@
                 },
                 "telemetrySuffix": {
                   "title": "Telemetry Suffix",
-                  "description": "Suffix that is appended to the search engine identifier following a dash, i.e. `<identifier>-<suffix>`. There should always be a suffix supplied if the partner code is different.",
+                  "description": "Suffix that is appended to the search engine identifier following a dash, i.e. `<identifier>-<suffix>`. There should always be a suffix supplied if the partner code is different for a reason other than being on a different platform.",
                   "type": "string",
                   "pattern": "^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$"
                 },
@@ -384,10 +384,7 @@
                   }
                 }
               },
-              "required": ["environment"],
-              "dependencies": {
-                "partnerCode": ["telemetrySuffix"]
-              }
+              "required": ["environment"]
             }
           }
         },
diff --git a/toolkit/components/search/tests/xpcshell/searchconfigs/test_searchconfig_validates.js b/toolkit/components/search/tests/xpcshell/searchconfigs/test_searchconfig_validates.js
index 86686b62f7fe..f727d6071993 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/search/tests/xpcshell/searchconfigs/test_searchconfig_validates.js
+++ b/toolkit/components/search/tests/xpcshell/searchconfigs/test_searchconfig_validates.js
@@ -170,6 +170,32 @@ add_task(
   }
 );
 
+add_task(
+  { skip_if: () => !SearchUtils.newSearchConfigEnabled },
+  async function test_search_config_valid_partner_codes() {
+    delete SearchUtils.newSearchConfigEnabled;
+    SearchUtils.newSearchConfigEnabled = true;
+
+    let selector = new SearchEngineSelector(() => {});
+
+    for (let entry of await selector.getEngineConfiguration()) {
+      if (entry.recordType == "engine") {
+        for (let variant of entry.variants) {
+          if (
+            "partnerCode" in variant &&
+            "distributions" in variant.environment
+          ) {
+            Assert.ok(
+              variant.telemetrySuffix,
+              `${entry.identifier} should have a telemetrySuffix when a distribution is specified with a partnerCode.`
+            );
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+);
+
 add_task(
   { skip_if: () => !SearchUtils.newSearchConfigEnabled },
   async function test_search_config_override_validates_to_schema() {