diff --git a/modules/lemonldap-ng-portal/lib/Lemonldap/NG/Portal/UserDBSAML.pm b/modules/lemonldap-ng-portal/lib/Lemonldap/NG/Portal/UserDBSAML.pm
index a607c1526..c71397981 100644
--- a/modules/lemonldap-ng-portal/lib/Lemonldap/NG/Portal/UserDBSAML.pm
+++ b/modules/lemonldap-ng-portal/lib/Lemonldap/NG/Portal/UserDBSAML.pm
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ package Lemonldap::NG::Portal::UserDBSAML;
 use strict;
 use Lemonldap::NG::Portal::Simple;
 use Lemonldap::NG::Portal::_SAML;
+use Encode;
 our @ISA = qw(Lemonldap::NG::Portal::_SAML);
 
 our $VERSION = '0.01';
@@ -95,6 +96,10 @@ sub setSessionInfo {
     my $idp_metadata =
       $self->{samlIDPMetaDataXML}->{$idpConfKey}->{samlIDPMetaDataXML};
 
+    if ( $self->{samlMetadataForceUTF8} ) {
+        $idp_metadata = encode( "utf8", $idp_metadata );
+    }
+
     # Add this IDP to Lasso::Server as AA
     unless ( $self->addAA( $server, $idp_metadata ) ) {
         $self->lmLog(