diff --git a/static/js/utils/alerts.js b/static/js/utils/alerts.js
index 52f620d12..427e38373 100644
--- a/static/js/utils/alerts.js
+++ b/static/js/utils/alerts.js
@@ -160,7 +160,8 @@
       var alerts;
       for (var header of response.headers) {
         if (header[0] === 'alerts') {
-          alerts = JSON.parse(header[1]);
+          var decodedHeader = decodeURIComponent(header[1]);
+          alerts = JSON.parse(decodedHeader);
           break;
         }
       }