EMV – Credit Card Liability Shift to Merchants (You!)

Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) is the standard in credit card processing for the reduction of fraudulent transactions due to lost or stolen cards used around the world and finally coming to the United States.  In effect on October 1, 2015, merchants who accept credit cards in person need to have new EMV chip readers in place.  Companies that accept credit cards via eCommerce websites or process through their accounting system via virtual terminals (i.e. Sage Payments) are exempt.  In essence, if you touch the card you must be in compliance with EMV as you may now hold the liability for processing fraudulent or stolen cards.  Otherwise, the liability is still with the banks.

If you are not familiar with EMV and accept credit cards in person, please contact your credit card processing company for assistance.  To reduce your liability and improve transaction efficiency, consider implementing Sage Payment Solutions to process credit card transactions via a virtual terminal as well as compliance with PCI (Payment Card Industry) security standards regarding the security of information when you store, process and transmit cardholder data.