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The Liability Shift Is Coming EMV adoption was top of mind among NRF Show attendees By Brian Berk
T
he coming EMV liability shift for point-of-sale (POS) transactions in-store, set for Oct. 1, was a main focal point of conversation for retailers and exhibitors alike at the 104th annual National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention & Expo, dubbed Retail’s Big Show. A number of exhibitors displayed EMV chip technologies, as well as related security offerings at the trade show, which took place at the Jacob K. Javits Approximately 33,000 attendees made their way to New York City to participate in the NRF Convention & Expo. Convention Center in New York. EMV — an acronym for Europay, American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa card MasterCard and Visa — was also a primary focus of to a retail terminal meant only to accept swipe cards, educational sessions during the convention, includthe merchant is responsible if fraud subsequently occurs. ing one session entitled “EMV Currently, credit-card issuers are responsible. Liability Shift Demystified!” NRF 104th Annual Additionally, merchants are responsible for lost or stopresented by Heartland Payment Convention & Expo len chip-based cards presented to a magnetic stripe POS in Systems Inc. executives David Jan. 11-13, 2015 all cases expect Visa, which will continue to accept responHogan, executive director, and New York sibility itself, explained Hogan. Retailers are also responJohn South, chief security officer. sible if a chip-and-PIN debit or credit card is presented to a Retailers are not required by terminal only upgraded to accept chip-and-signature cards. law to upgrade to an EMV-ready POS by Oct. 1, but Of course, any retailer making the proper upgrade convenience store retailers do need to upgrade their to an EMV-capable POS will have no responsibility for devices if they want to avoid responsibility for fraudufraudulent or lost/stolen card transactions. C-store retailers lent or lost/stolen debit and credit card transactions in need to determine if an upgrade to EMV-ready terminals certain instances. is worth the cost. As of Oct. 1, if a consumer presents a chip-based “Take a look at your chargeback rates. If the average ticket is less than $10, some retailers may make the decision not to upgrade,” said Hogan. “If you do not upgrade to EMV, I recommend you have end-to-end encryption and tokenization. These take a lot of risk out of the [equation] right away.” Heartland’s executive director added that although just 5 percent of U.S. credit and debit cards featured a chip at the end of 2014, these cards will become omnipresent this year. In fact, according to the Aite Group, 70 percent of U.S. credit cards and 41 percent of debit A wide variety of products were exhibited at the trade show, including cards will be EMV enabled by the end of 2015. CSN EMV chip technologies.
70 Convenience Store News | FEBRUARY 2015 | WWW.CSNEWS.COM