diff --git a/tests/resources/models/signedTransactionWithNonAsciiData.json b/tests/resources/models/signedTransactionWithNonAsciiData.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cfdb2c5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/resources/models/signedTransactionWithNonAsciiData.json
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+{
+  "transactionId":"23456",
+  "originalTransactionId":"12345",
+  "bundleId":"com.example",
+  "productId":"com.example.product",
+  "purchaseDate":1698148900000,
+  "signedDate":1698148900000,
+  "environment":"LocalTesting",
+  "advancedCommerceInfo": {
+    "descriptors": {
+      "description": "Abonnement Café — 5,99 € par mois",
+      "displayName": "Café Premium"
+    },
+    "items": [
+      {
+        "SKU": "com.example.sku.premium",
+        "description": "プレミアム機能",
+        "displayName": "プレミアム",
+        "price": 9990
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tests/test_decoded_payloads.py b/tests/test_decoded_payloads.py
index 20232480..faec8b28 100644
--- a/tests/test_decoded_payloads.py
+++ b/tests/test_decoded_payloads.py
@@ -131,6 +131,24 @@ def test_transaction_decoding(self):
         self.assertEqual(119880, commitment.commitmentPrice)
         self.assertEqual(12, commitment.totalBillingPeriods)
 
+    def test_non_ascii_data_decoding_is_independent_of_the_default_charset(self):
+        """
+        The payload of a JWS is always UTF-8 encoded, so decoding it must not depend on the default charset of the interpreter.
+        The expected values below are written as escape sequences so that this test does not depend on the encoding
+        used to compile it either.
+        """
+        signed_transaction = create_signed_data_from_json('tests/resources/models/signedTransactionWithNonAsciiData.json')
+
+        signed_data_verifier = get_default_signed_data_verifier()
+
+        transaction = signed_data_verifier.verify_and_decode_signed_transaction(signed_transaction)
+
+        advanced_commerce_info = transaction.advancedCommerceInfo
+        self.assertEqual("Abonnement Caf\u00e9 \u2014 5,99 \u20ac par mois", advanced_commerce_info.descriptors.description)
+        self.assertEqual("Caf\u00e9 Premium", advanced_commerce_info.descriptors.displayName)
+        self.assertEqual("\u30d7\u30ec\u30df\u30a2\u30e0\u6a5f\u80fd", advanced_commerce_info.items[0].description)
+        self.assertEqual("\u30d7\u30ec\u30df\u30a2\u30e0", advanced_commerce_info.items[0].displayName)
+
     def test_transaction_with_revocation_decoding(self):
         signed_transaction = create_signed_data_from_json('tests/resources/models/signedTransactionWithRevocation.json')
 
diff --git a/tests/util.py b/tests/util.py
index 6dbeb21a..f1d8bd61 100644
--- a/tests/util.py
+++ b/tests/util.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ def decode_json_from_signed_date(data: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
 
 def read_data_from_file(path: str) -> str:
     full_path = os.path.join(path)
-    with open(full_path, mode='r') as test_file:
+    with open(full_path, mode='r', encoding='utf-8') as test_file:
         return test_file.read()
     
 def read_data_from_binary_file(path: str) -> str: