diff --git a/polaris-service/src/main/java/org/apache/polaris/service/catalog/IcebergCatalogAdapter.java b/polaris-service/src/main/java/org/apache/polaris/service/catalog/IcebergCatalogAdapter.java
index 8e29cdb25..a4c70e683 100644
--- a/polaris-service/src/main/java/org/apache/polaris/service/catalog/IcebergCatalogAdapter.java
+++ b/polaris-service/src/main/java/org/apache/polaris/service/catalog/IcebergCatalogAdapter.java
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ public Response loadNamespaceMetadata(
   }
 
   private static Namespace decodeNamespace(String namespace) {
-    return RESTUtil.decodeNamespace(URLEncoder.encode(namespace, Charset.defaultCharset()));
+    return RESTUtil.decodeNamespace(namespace);
   }
 
   @Override