A method, apparatus and computer program product for minimizing or preventing duplicate traffic during point to multipoint tree switching in a network. In its operation, embodiments disclosed herein utilize control plane trigger mechanisms to handle the receipt of duplicate traffic by network entities after the occurrence of a network failure event. Generally, the control plane trigger mechanism prevents a network entity from processing multicast traffic from both old and new upstream data paths resulting from typical network convergence procedures. The methods and apparatus describe herein apply to standard rerouting procedures as well as fast rerouting procedures for multicast traffic in a network.