EMV Compliance in Vending: Everything You Should Know

EMV Compliance in Vending: Everything You Should Know

With digital transformation and new technologies making their way into all businesses, it is only natural that vending operators also have a place in this revolution. New challenges, including compliance regulations have accompanied these technological advances. One of these new developments is EMV security. You may be wondering, What is EMV? Are my vending machines EMV compliant? This blog post explains everything related to EMV compliance in vending machines so you can make informed decisions on upgrading the cashless system on your equipment.

What is EMV?

EMV stands for ‘Europay, MasterCard, and Visa,’ and it refers to the technology used for payment transactions. EMV is a security standard that reduces the chance of in-person credit and debit card fraud and increases the security of consumer financial data. It is a global card payment authentication standard used in “tap” or contactless transactions where data is transmitted through the card’s chip and protected with 12 layers of encryption. Encryption of sensitive data helps protect merchants and customers. EMV cards produce a unique code for each transaction that makes it more difficult for criminals to steal data to produce counterfeit cards. This is different from Magstripe payments that send complete card number data. It is a mandate from credit card companies to ensure that their cards are being used in a secure environment. 

EMV and Vending Machines: Everything You Need to Know

EMV technology is an important tool for merchants in the fight against chargeback fees from fraudulent purchases and other winnable disputes. Vendor operators can use EMV to ensure banks are liable for fraudulent purchases. For vending customers it will reduce the risk of in-person fraud and instill confidence in them regarding the security of their credit card information. Consumers are looking to make purchases by “tapping” and are expecting vendors to be capable of receiving these secure payments.

A card with EMV functionality must typically be inserted into the slot of a payment terminal or “tapped” for contactless payments. New EMV regulations only apply to chip/”insert” and contactless/”tap” transactions. Mag stripe swipes are not included in EMV security transactions.

Greenlite turned off the “tap” functionality on Non-EMV compliant devices December 1st, 2022 to keep them in operation as swipe only readers. All vending machine owners and operators should know that the chip readers need to be EMV compliant to accept chip functionality. Not all vending machines have EMV readers. It is important to check if your vending machines have them and if not, find the best way to upgrade your machines.

 How to Comply with Emv for Vending Machines?

Check to see if your current credit card readers are EMV compliant to know if you need to upgrade your machine with new EMV compliant card readers to accept credit card and mobile wallet “tap” payments. For example, Greenlite Legacy Seed card readers that are connected to an orange telemetry box are Not EMV compliant. Operators can upgrade from Greenlite Seed to a Greenlite ePort EMV compatible device with $0 upfront costs.

 Conclusion

Since EMV card readers encrypt data to help prevent fraud, they are more secure than conventional magnetic stripe readers. In order to continue to accept “tap” payments and to provide increased data security for your customers EMV compliant card readers are the way to go. Switch to EMV immediately! To understand more about EMV card readers, cashless payment solutions and the latest in vending technology get in touch with U-Select-It today!