diff --git a/phpBB/phpbb/db/driver/mssqlnative.php b/phpBB/phpbb/db/driver/mssqlnative.php
index 50dce35baa..28bd3ceb42 100644
--- a/phpBB/phpbb/db/driver/mssqlnative.php
+++ b/phpBB/phpbb/db/driver/mssqlnative.php
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ class mssqlnative extends \phpbb\db\driver\mssql_base
 		$this->db_connect_id = sqlsrv_connect($this->server, array(
 			'Database' => $this->dbname,
 			'UID' => $this->user,
-			'PWD' => $sqlpassword
+			'PWD' => $sqlpassword,
+			'CharacterSet' => 'UTF-8'
 		));
 
 		return ($this->db_connect_id) ? $this->db_connect_id : $this->sql_error('');