diff --git a/sql-plugin/src/main/scala/com/nvidia/spark/rapids/SortUtils.scala b/sql-plugin/src/main/scala/com/nvidia/spark/rapids/SortUtils.scala
index ce2c5c63e07..b9e405b23cf 100644
--- a/sql-plugin/src/main/scala/com/nvidia/spark/rapids/SortUtils.scala
+++ b/sql-plugin/src/main/scala/com/nvidia/spark/rapids/SortUtils.scala
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019-2022, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@ import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
 import ai.rapids.cudf.{ColumnVector, NvtxColor, OrderByArg, Table}
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions.{Alias, Attribute, AttributeReference, BoundReference, Expression, NullsFirst, NullsLast, SortOrder}
-import org.apache.spark.sql.types.DataType
+import org.apache.spark.sql.rapids.execution.TrampolineUtil
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types.{ArrayType, DataType, MapType}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.vectorized.ColumnarBatch
 
 object SortUtils extends Arm {
@@ -210,6 +211,20 @@ class GpuSorter(
     }
   }
 
+  private[this] lazy val hasNestedInKeyColumns = cpuOrderingInternal.exists ( order =>
+    DataTypeUtils.isNestedType(order.child.dataType)
+  )
+
+  /** (This can be removed once https://github.com/rapidsai/cudf/issues/8050 is addressed) */
+  private[this] lazy val hasUnsupportedNestedInRideColumns = {
+    val keyColumnIndices = cpuOrderingInternal.map(_.child.asInstanceOf[BoundReference].ordinal)
+    val rideColumnIndices = projectedBatchTypes.indices.toSet -- keyColumnIndices
+    rideColumnIndices.exists { idx =>
+      TrampolineUtil.dataTypeExistsRecursively(projectedBatchTypes(idx),
+        t => t.isInstanceOf[ArrayType] || t.isInstanceOf[MapType])
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Merge multiple batches together. All of these batches should be the output of
    * `appendProjectedColumns` and the output of this will also be in that same format.
@@ -226,15 +241,10 @@ class GpuSorter(
           batches.foreach { cb =>
             tabs += GpuColumnVector.from(cb)
           }
-          // In the current version of cudf merge does not work for structs or lists (nested types)
+          // In the current version of cudf merge does not work for lists and maps.
           // This should be fixed by https://github.com/rapidsai/cudf/issues/8050
-          val hasNested = {
-            val tab = tabs.head
-            (0 until tab.getNumberOfColumns).exists { i =>
-              tab.getColumn(i).getType.isNestedType
-            }
-          }
-          if (hasNested) {
+          // Nested types in sort key columns is not supported either.
+          if (hasNestedInKeyColumns || hasUnsupportedNestedInRideColumns) {
             // so as a work around we concatenate all of the data together and then sort it.
             // It is slower, but it works
             withResource(Table.concatenate(tabs: _*)) { concatenated =>