NEW YORK CITY – American Express will extend the effective date of its EMV fraud liability shift for U.S. fuel merchants by three years to October 2020. The extension will give U.S. fuel merchants increased flexibility in their fight against fraud by providing additional time to upgrade their automatic fuel dispenser systems to accept EMV chip cards. Starting October 2020, U.S. fuel merchants may be held liable for fraud chargebacks that result from payment transactions performed at automatic fuel dispensers if they have not enabled these devices to accept EMV chip cards.

“American Express is committed to helping merchants fight fraud and supporting their efforts to manage the costs of upgrading to EMV,” said Jaromir Divilek, senior vice president of global network business for American Express, in a press release. “U.S. fuel merchants face unique circumstances, including complexity of the hardware upgrade and the process involved in making the updates necessary to accept EMV chip cards at automatic fuel dispensers. We want to ensure these merchants have the time necessary to work through this process so they can upgrade their systems to accept EMV chip cards and enhance their security.”

American Express first announced its U.S. EMV roadmap in 2012. Since that time, the company has worked closely with its merchants, third-party processors and other partners to ensure they have the tools and resources necessary to upgrade their point-of-sale systems so they can accept EMV chip cards. American Express has also taken other steps to help U.S. merchants limit their fraud costs as they upgrade their POS systems.