Beginning March 1, 2023, all Visa contactless mag stripe data (MSD) transactions that originate at a dispenser will be disabled and will no longer work until contactless EMV capability is available and enabled in the various EPOS systems. These customers can continue to process card-based EMV transactions and mobile-based transactions using the My Phillips 66®, My 76®, and My Conoco® apps, or consumers can pre-pay inside as needed. As with all new releases of software, we will provide communications when contactless EMV functionality is available for the various EPOS systems and software.
In the card payments environment, when we talk about contactless payments, we think of tap-and-pay cards as well as mobile phone wallets. However, for contactless, there are two variants: The older method is called contactless MSD format, and the newest is referred to as contactless EMV formatted data. Most EPOS systems in the field today still use contactless MSD at the dispenser because of delays with development and certification of software to support contactless EMV. However, contactless EMV is widely available on the inside systems and PIN pads.
Visa has advised that sites utilizing only contactless MSD at the dispenser are outside of their compliance requirements to process contactless EMV, even though they are aware of the timing challenges in the industry. With this requirement, Visa has announced that they will begin fining merchants that continue to process contactless MSD at the dispenser. To avoid these significant fines, these specific transactions will be disabled.
