diff --git a/rblib/tests/validate_test.rb b/rblib/tests/validate_test.rb
index 4ed4a8e9..606de3cc 100644
--- a/rblib/tests/validate_test.rb
+++ b/rblib/tests/validate_test.rb
@@ -94,8 +94,12 @@ def test_is_valid_email
     assert(MySociety::Validate.is_valid_email("mr.example@example.com") != nil)
   end
 
-  def test_unicode_localpart_is_not_valid_email
-    assert(MySociety::Validate.is_valid_email("Pelé@example.com") == nil)
+  def test_unicode_localpart_is_valid_email
+    assert(MySociety::Validate.is_valid_email("Pelé@example.com") != nil)
+  end
+
+  def test_unicode_domain_is_valid_email
+    assert(MySociety::Validate.is_valid_email("üñîçøðé@üñîçøðé.com") != nil)
   end
 
   def test_localpart_with_unquoted_space_is_not_valid_email
diff --git a/rblib/validate.rb b/rblib/validate.rb
index 5551c0e2..c5edc50f 100644
--- a/rblib/validate.rb
+++ b/rblib/validate.rb
@@ -74,7 +74,6 @@ def self.email_match_regexp
             # domain = sub-domain ("." sub-domain)* | address-literal
             # sub-domain = [A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9-]*
             # XXX ignore address-literal because nobody uses those...
-            # XXX Update this for http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6530
             # N.B. intended for validating email addresses in their canonical form,
             # so does not allow folding whitespace
 
@@ -82,14 +81,14 @@ def self.email_match_regexp
             controls = '\\000-\\037\\177'
             # To add MacRuby support, see https://github.com/nex3/sass/pull/432
             highbit = '\\u{80}-\\u{D7FF}\\u{E000}-\\u{FFFD}\\u{10000}-\\u{10FFFF}'
-            atext = "[^#{specials} #{controls}#{highbit}]"
+            atext = "[^#{specials} #{controls}]"
             atom = "#{atext}+"
             dot_string = "#{atom}(\\.#{atom})*"
             qtext = "[^\"\\\\\\r\\n#{highbit}]"
             quoted_pair = '\\.'
             quoted_string = "\"(#{qtext}|#{quoted_pair})*\""
             local_part = "(#{dot_string}|#{quoted_string})"
-            sub_domain = '[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9-]*'
+            sub_domain = "#{atom}"
             domain = "#{sub_domain}(\\.#{sub_domain})*"
 
             return "#{local_part}@#{domain}"