New “Chip” Credit Cards Will Change Usage Liability for Courts

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has issued a new resource bulletin, “EMV and Credit Card Liability: What Courts Need to Know”.  As discussed last year in a CTB article, this mandatory change is coming in October, 2015.

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The full paper (highly recommended) is available as an online PDF document here.

The bulletin's summary states:

“Nearly every country in the world uses the global standard called EMV" (credit cards with an embedded chip as shown in the picture) "for bankcard processing because of the technology’s effectiveness in protecting cardholder data and reducing counterfeit, lost and stolen bankcard fraud. The US is finally making that shift.

Merchants that accept bankcard payments (including courts) must implement devices that can read EMV chip-enabled cards by October 2015, or be liable for any fraudulent purchases made at their terminals. While addressing the requirements of EMV payment processing, courts should also evaluate the possibility of simultaneously incorporating other payment technologies, including contactless EMV and Near Field Communication (NFC).”

The paper specifically warns:

“If your organization owns credit card readers, you must upgrade them to devices that can authenticate credit and debit cards with the EMV chip. Because of rapid changes in paypoint technology, Court Administrators should consider implementing readers that support both contact and contactless EMV, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payments.

If you have contracted with a vendor for card readers, review your contract carefully.

Court administrators should ensure they understand essential vendor-specific details:

1. Who currently bears liability in a card present transaction and how will that change in October of 2015?
2. What payment processing applications do you support?
3. Do these applications support contact, contactless and/or both?
4. What are my routing choices?

Because new card readers may have additional data requirements that could impact court facilities, Court Administrators should act quickly to assess their court’s readiness for EMV.”