diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 2d64c31..f1b03f7 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -17,11 +17,11 @@
         <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
         <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
         <cucumber.version>7.4.1</cucumber.version>
-        <testng.version>7.4.0</testng.version>
+        <testng.version>7.5.1</testng.version>
         <playwright.version>1.55.0</playwright.version>
         <browserstack-local-java.version>1.0.6</browserstack-local-java.version>
         <snakeyaml.version>2.0</snakeyaml.version>
-        <json.version>20210307</json.version>
+        <json.version>20231013</json.version>
         <maven-surefire-plugin.version>3.0.0-M5</maven-surefire-plugin.version>
     </properties>
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/e2e/StackDemoSteps.java b/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/e2e/StackDemoSteps.java
index da95d1d..0b940a2 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/e2e/StackDemoSteps.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/e2e/StackDemoSteps.java
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ public class StackDemoSteps {
     private static final String PRODUCT_IN_CART = "//*[@id=\"__next\"]/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/div/div[3]/p[1]";
 
     @Before
-    public void setUp(Scenario scenario) {
+    public void setUp(Scenario scenario) throws Exception {
         playwright = Playwright.create();
         BrowserType browserType = playwright.chromium();
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ public void setUp(Scenario scenario) {
         caps.put("browser", "chrome");
         caps.put("sessionName", scenario.getName());
 
-        String encoded = URLEncoder.encode(new JSONObject(caps).toString(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+        String encoded = URLEncoder.encode(new JSONObject(caps).toString(), "UTF-8");
         String wsEndpoint = "wss://cdp.browserstack.com/playwright?caps=" + encoded;
 
         browser = browserType.connect(wsEndpoint);
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/local/StackLocalSteps.java b/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/local/StackLocalSteps.java
index 7f618cb..78b1c8e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/local/StackLocalSteps.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/browserstack/stepdefs/local/StackLocalSteps.java
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ public class StackLocalSteps {
     private Page page;
 
     @Before
-    public void setUp(Scenario scenario) {
+    public void setUp(Scenario scenario) throws Exception {
         playwright = Playwright.create();
         BrowserType browserType = playwright.chromium();
 
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ public void setUp(Scenario scenario) {
         caps.put("browserstack.local", "true");
         caps.put("sessionName", scenario.getName());
 
-        String encoded = URLEncoder.encode(new JSONObject(caps).toString(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+        String encoded = URLEncoder.encode(new JSONObject(caps).toString(), "UTF-8");
         String wsEndpoint = "wss://cdp.browserstack.com/playwright?caps=" + encoded;
 
         browser = browserType.connect(wsEndpoint);