Why is Spring attempting to use a read-only transaction when I explicitly requested a new write transaction?

I have a service method that performs the following operations in sequence:

1. Calls a read method annotated with a custom read-only transaction annotation (equivalent to @Transactional(readOnly = true))

2. Then calls a write method annotated with a custom annotation that should create a new transaction (equivalent to @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW))

I'm getting this error:

[ERROR: cannot execute UPDATE in a read-only transaction]

Exemple: thanks @Robert

// Service class with transactional methods
@Service
public class UserService {
    
    @Autowired
    private UserRepository userRepository;
    
    // Read-only transaction
    @Transactional(readOnly = true)
    public User findUserById(Long id) {
        return userRepository.findById(id).orElse(null);
    }
    
    // Write transaction with REQUIRES_NEW
    @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRES_NEW)
    public User updateUser(User user) {
        return userRepository.save(user);
    }
}

// Orchestrator service
@Service
public class UserOrchestrationService {
    
    @Autowired
    private UserService userService;
    
    @Autowired
    private NotificationService notificationService;
    
    // No transaction annotation on this method
    public void processUserUpdate(Long userId, String newEmail) {
        // Step 1: Read user with READ-ONLY transaction
        User existingUser = userService.findUserById(userId);
        
        if (existingUser == null) {
            throw new RuntimeException("User not found");
        }
        
        // Step 2: Modify user data
        existingUser.setEmail(newEmail);
        existingUser.setLastModified(new Date());
        
        // Step 3: Save with REQUIRES_NEW transaction - FAILS HERE!
        User updatedUser = userService.updateUser(existingUser);
        
        // Step 4: Send notification
        notificationService.sendUpdateNotification(updatedUser);
    }
}