diff --git a/src/oic/utils/authn/client.py b/src/oic/utils/authn/client.py
index 6018a782f..560c6e3c0 100644
--- a/src/oic/utils/authn/client.py
+++ b/src/oic/utils/authn/client.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import base64
 import logging
-from urllib.parse import quote_plus
 
 from jwkest import Invalid
 from jwkest import MissingKey
diff --git a/src/oic/utils/authn/user.py b/src/oic/utils/authn/user.py
index 91cc206ba..1db76eee8 100644
--- a/src/oic/utils/authn/user.py
+++ b/src/oic/utils/authn/user.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 import logging
 import time
 from urllib.parse import parse_qs
-from urllib.parse import unquote_plus
 from urllib.parse import urlencode
 from urllib.parse import urlsplit
 from urllib.parse import urlunsplit
@@ -394,8 +393,6 @@ def authenticated_as(self, cookie=None, authorization="", **kwargs):
 
         _decoded = as_unicode(base64.b64decode(authorization))
         (user, pwd) = _decoded.split(":")
-        user = unquote_plus(user)
-        pwd = unquote_plus(pwd)
         self.verify_password(user, pwd)
         return {"uid": user}, time.time()
 
diff --git a/tests/test_authn_user.py b/tests/test_authn_user.py
index bb9459410..a65973fe6 100644
--- a/tests/test_authn_user.py
+++ b/tests/test_authn_user.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import base64
-from urllib.parse import quote_plus
 
 import pytest
 
@@ -21,7 +20,7 @@ def test_basic_authn_authenticate_as():
     ba = BasicAuthn(None, pwd=pwd_database)
 
     for user, passwd in pwd_database.items():
-        credentials = "{}:{}".format(quote_plus(user), quote_plus(passwd))
+        credentials = "{}:{}".format(user, passwd)
 
         authz = base64.b64encode(credentials.encode("utf-8")).decode("utf-8")
         authorization_string = "Basic {}".format(authz)
diff --git a/tests/test_client.py b/tests/test_client.py
index 295d7b0b6..d411e6b7c 100644
--- a/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/tests/test_client.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 import os
 from unittest.mock import Mock
 from unittest.mock import patch
-from urllib.parse import quote_plus
 
 import pytest
 from jwkest import as_bytes
@@ -63,7 +62,7 @@ def test_construct(self, client):
 
         csb = ClientSecretBasic(client)
         http_args = csb.construct(cis)
-        cred = "{}:{}".format(quote_plus("A"), quote_plus("boarding pass"))
+        cred = "{}:{}".format("A", "boarding pass")
         assert http_args == {
             "headers": {
                 "Authorization": "Basic {}".format(