--- a/dom/events/EventListenerManager.cpp
+++ b/dom/events/EventListenerManager.cpp
@@ -681,33 +681,49 @@ EventListenerManager::ListenerCanHandle(
     if (!aEvent->mFlags.mInSystemGroup && !aListener->mIsChrome) {
       return false;
     }
   }
   MOZ_ASSERT(mIsMainThreadELM);
   return aListener->mEventMessage == aEventMessage;
 }
 
+static bool
+DefaultToPassiveTouchListeners()
+{
+  static bool sDefaultToPassiveTouchListeners = false;
+  static bool sIsPrefCached = false;
+
+  if (!sIsPrefCached) {
+    sIsPrefCached = true;
+    Preferences::AddBoolVarCache(&sDefaultToPassiveTouchListeners,
+                                 "dom.event.default_to_passive_touch_listeners");
+  }
+
+  return sDefaultToPassiveTouchListeners;
+}
+
 void
 EventListenerManager::AddEventListenerByType(
                         EventListenerHolder aListenerHolder,
                         const nsAString& aType,
                         const EventListenerFlags& aFlags,
                         const Optional<bool>& aPassive)
 {
   RefPtr<nsAtom> atom;
   EventMessage message = mIsMainThreadELM ?
     nsContentUtils::GetEventMessageAndAtomForListener(aType,
                                                       getter_AddRefs(atom)) :
     eUnidentifiedEvent;
 
   EventListenerFlags flags = aFlags;
   if (aPassive.WasPassed()) {
     flags.mPassive = aPassive.Value();
-  } else if (message == eTouchStart || message == eTouchMove) {
+  } else if ((message == eTouchStart || message == eTouchMove) &&
+             mIsMainThreadELM && DefaultToPassiveTouchListeners()) {
     nsCOMPtr<nsINode> node;
     nsCOMPtr<nsPIDOMWindowInner> win;
     if ((win = GetTargetAsInnerWindow()) ||
         ((node = do_QueryInterface(mTarget)) &&
          (node == node->OwnerDoc() ||
           node == node->OwnerDoc()->GetRootElement() ||
           node == node->OwnerDoc()->GetBody()))) {
       flags.mPassive = true;

--- a/gfx/layers/apz/test/mochitest/test_group_touchevents.html
+++ b/gfx/layers/apz/test/mochitest/test_group_touchevents.html
@@ -71,17 +71,18 @@ var subtests = [
   // For the following tests, we want to make sure APZ doesn't wait for a content
   // response that is never going to arrive. To detect this we set the content response
   // timeout to a day, so that the entire test times out and fails if APZ does
   // end up waiting.
   {'file': 'helper_tap_passive.html', 'prefs': [["apz.content_response_timeout", 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000],
                                                 ["apz.test.fails_with_native_injection", isWindows]]},
 
   {'file': 'helper_tap_default_passive.html', 'prefs': [["apz.content_response_timeout", 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000],
-                                                        ["apz.test.fails_with_native_injection", isWindows]]},
+                                                        ["apz.test.fails_with_native_injection", isWindows],
+                                                        ["dom.event.default_to_passive_touch_listeners", true]]},
 
   // Simple test to exercise touch-action CSS property
   {'file': 'helper_touch_action.html', 'prefs': touch_action_prefs},
   // More complex touch-action tests, with overlapping regions and such
   {'file': 'helper_touch_action_complex.html', 'prefs': touch_action_prefs},
   // Tests that touch-action CSS properties are handled in APZ without waiting
   // on the main-thread, when possible
   {'file': 'helper_touch_action_regions.html', 'prefs': touch_action_prefs},

--- a/modules/libpref/init/all.js
+++ b/modules/libpref/init/all.js
@@ -5912,8 +5912,12 @@ pref("layers.omtp.paint-workers", 1);
 #endif
 pref("layers.omtp.release-capture-on-main-thread", false);
 pref("layers.omtp.dump-capture", false);
 
 // Limits the depth of recursive conversion of data when opening
 // a content to view.  This is mostly intended to prevent infinite
 // loops with faulty converters involved.
 pref("general.document_open_conversion_depth_limit", 20);
+
+// If true, touchstart and touchmove listeners on window, document,
+// documentElement and document.body are passive by default.
+pref("dom.event.default_to_passive_touch_listeners", false);