diff --git a/swift/common/middleware/acl.py b/swift/common/middleware/acl.py
index c23e89284c..8333bbab67 100644
--- a/swift/common/middleware/acl.py
+++ b/swift/common/middleware/acl.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 import json
+import six
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import unquote
 
 from swift.common.utils import urlparse
 
@@ -200,7 +202,7 @@ def parse_acl_v1(acl_string):
             if value.startswith('.r:'):
                 referrers.append(value[len('.r:'):])
             else:
-                groups.append(value)
+                groups.append(unquote(value))
     return referrers, groups
 
 
@@ -293,8 +295,13 @@ def acls_from_account_info(info):
     readonly_members = acl.get('read-only', [])
     if not any((admin_members, readwrite_members, readonly_members)):
         return None
-    return {
+
+    acls = {
         'admin': admin_members,
         'read-write': readwrite_members,
         'read-only': readonly_members,
     }
+    if six.PY2:
+        for k in ('admin', 'read-write', 'read-only'):
+            acls[k] = [v.encode('utf8') for v in acls[k]]
+    return acls