With the October rollout of EMV Technology for retailers and merchants much has been publicized about compliance and the shift of liability on to retailers for accepting fraudulent cards instead of the card issuers themselves. The most important thing to note–after October 15 the liability will shift to the merchant if fraud takes place at your establishment. However, two important pieces must be considered–1) you are liable if you do not upgrade your hardware to EMV compatible technology AND 2) you are liable if the fraudster uses a stolen card that has an EMV chip and you process it via the swipe method.

So what does that mean? Well it’s going to take a long time for EMV cards to roll out nationwide from card issuers. In fact, estimates say it could be well into 2018 before 96% of cards are EMV compatible. So from that respect, you have some time to get compatible. And also, remember that small restaurants are usually not hot beds of fraudulent activities by crooks. So though it it possible for someone to use a stolen card at your restaurant, and eventually you will bear the liability, it may not be for thousands of dollars. However, if it happened frequently the dollars could indeed add up, so it is well worth it to spend a few hundred dollars to upgrade your hardware to EMV technology.

American Express is offering merchants $100 gift cards right now to get them motivated to upgrade their systems. More details about that promotion by clicking here.

Need more information on this topic? Give us a call–we are happy to walk you through the ins and outs and answer any questions you might have about EMV technology and how it might affect your small business.