USA: American Express joins Visa in EMV delay

The difficulty for gas stations to adapt their sites to EMV due to COVID-19 has pushed American Express to postpone the deadline to April 16, 2021.

American Express announced yesterday the decision to postpone its U.S. EMV fraud liability shift date for Auto Fuel Dispensers (AFD) from October 17, 2020 to April 16, 2021

“We have been speaking with fuel retailers and understand the challenges they are now facing in upgrading their AFD terminals because of the COVID-19 global health crisis. To aid them, we are extending the deadline to April 16, 2021,” said American Express in an email to PetrolPlaza.

The move follows Visa’s announcement to shift their EMV forecourt liability from October 20, 2020 to April 17, 2021.

Mastercard and Discover have not yet moved their deadlines, though the four largest U.S. card brands often set similar time frames.

The upgrade of payment equipment at U.S. fuel pumps to accept chip cards has been a slow process. Last January, Joshua Smith, CEO of Gas Pos, said the gas station industry appeared to be “massively underprepared” for the shift.

Card fraud has remained one of the biggest issues for the forecourt sector in the U.S. Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, convenience stores will now have until April 2021 to finalize the switch to EMV.