diff --git a/app/controllers/epp/domains_controller.rb b/app/controllers/epp/domains_controller.rb
index 33a602aed..f8cb2b752 100644
--- a/app/controllers/epp/domains_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/epp/domains_controller.rb
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ class Epp::DomainsController < EppController
 
   def find_domain
     domain_name = params[:parsed_frame].css('name').text.strip.downcase
-    @domain = Epp::Domain.where(name: domain_name).includes(registrant: :registrar).first
+    @domain = Epp::Domain.find_by_idn domain_name
 
     unless @domain
       epp_errors << {
diff --git a/app/models/domain.rb b/app/models/domain.rb
index 7d2aa89ec..4608b83c0 100644
--- a/app/models/domain.rb
+++ b/app/models/domain.rb
@@ -334,6 +334,17 @@ class Domain < ActiveRecord::Base
     self[:name_dirty] = value
   end
 
+  # find by internationalized domain name
+  # internet domain name => ascii or puny, but db::domains.name is unicode
+  def self.find_by_idn(name)
+    domain = self.find_by_name name
+    if domain.blank? && name.include?('-')
+      unicode = SimpleIDN.to_unicode name # we have no index on domains.name_puny
+      domain = self.find_by_name unicode
+    end
+    domain
+  end
+
   def roid
     "EIS-#{id}"
   end
diff --git a/app/models/epp/domain.rb b/app/models/epp/domain.rb
index a84f2ddba..876918407 100644
--- a/app/models/epp/domain.rb
+++ b/app/models/epp/domain.rb
@@ -838,7 +838,7 @@ class Epp::Domain < Domain
           next
         end
 
-        if Domain.find_by(name: x)
+        if Domain.find_by_idn x
           res << { name: x, avail: 0, reason: 'in use' }
         else
           res << { name: x, avail: 1 }