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February 22, 2021 • Issue 21:02:02

The EMV opportunity: getting

gas stations up to speed

April deadline is around the corner

Most U.S. merchants were required to upgrade POS de-
vices to support EMV by October 2015, or assume liability
for counterfeit cards and fraudulent payments that could be
traced back to their non-compliant devices. This includes
associated expenses, like dispute resolution, and non-com-
pliance fines and fees.

The card companies, however, gave businesses with AFDs
additional time to get their devices into compliance, largely
because of the complicated nature and expense of upgrad-
ing them. Initially, stores with pay-at-the-pump gas dis-
pensing had an EMV-deployment deadline of October 2017.
But the deadline was extended to October 2020 when gas
stations balked at the time and expense of meeting the 2017
deadline. And last year the card brands extended the dead-
By Patti Murphy line by another six months, to April 1, 2021.

he deadline for automated fuel dispensers to be Gas stations without EMV-compliant AFD pumps are
compliant with EMV security protocols is fast prime targets for fraudsters. Armed with master keys that
approaching, and thousands are woefully unpre- allow them to unlock pumps, often under the cover of dark-
T pared. This presents an opportunity for ISOs ness, bands of organized criminals have been installing
and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) to help move the card skimmers at pumps that still rely on mag stripe card
compliance needle while boosting residual streams. "The readers, which enables them to capture customer credit and
opportunity is there," said Dan Lyman, head of fintech pay- debit card data for sale on the black market. Card skim-
ments for North America at Transaction Network Services. ming at AFDs has been on the rise ever since in-store POS
devices and ATMs made the switch to EMV.
"Selling EMV at the pump is a big deal; people are asking
about it almost every day," said Josh Smith, CEO at Gas Last November, the Florida Department of Agriculture and
POS. The need is particularly keen among operators of Consumer Services conducted inspections that uncovered
travel plazas, where average tickets can run $400 and $500,
he added.

The need is equally strong among convenience stores, Contributed articles inside by:
stated Eric Goldberg, vice president at NRS Petro, a unit
of National Retail Solutions focused on convenience stores
and gas stations. "We've completed installations at 50 con- Marc Beauchamp ..................................................................................24
venience stores since September," he said. NRS, a POS net- Roger McNamara ..................................................................................26
work provider and card processor, sells technology devel-
oped by Sound Payments that retrofits most existing gas Chad Otar ...............................................................................................27
pumps to support EMV. The only exception: old mechani-
cal pumps, which are far and few between, and need to be TOC on page 3
replaced outright, Goldberg noted.

Continued on page 22