The EMV Migration Forum has released "Understanding the 2015 U.S. Fraud Liability Shifts," a document meant to help payments industry members in the U.S. better understand their rights and responsibilities following EMV implementation deadlines.

With October fast approaching, many card issuers, merchants and processors implementing EMV chip technology are asking who is liable for what — and when — under the fraud liability shifts, according to a press release from the forum.

"What the fraud liability shifts mean is often unclear to payments stakeholders that are just beginning to learn about or migrate to EMV chip technology," said Randy Vanderhoof, director of the EMV Migration Forum. "As October gets closer, it's crucial that stakeholders understand what the shifts are, what their responsibilities will be, and what this means for their business. This document simplifies essential information surrounding the liability shifts to help stakeholders meet these dates and to streamline the migration to chip technology."

The following liability shifts and payment networks are addressed in the document:

• counterfeit fraud liability shift — applies to the payment networks including Accel; American Express; China UnionPay; Discover; MasterCard; Nyce Payments Network; Shazam Network; Star Network; and Visa
• lost or stolen fraud liability shift — applies to American Express, Discover, and MasterCard payment networks; and
• liability shifts for cross-borderⁱ transactions — applies to all global payment networks

The document explains that, in general, the party with the least secure technology for each fraud type will be responsible for a chargeback as of October. In case of a technology tie, the fraud liability is expected to remain with the issuer, the release said.

The document covers common scenarios only for those payment networks that provided information to the EMV Migration Forum. It does not cover background and potential fraud scenarios from networks that might have liability shifts but did not provide information. For this reason, stakeholders are strongly encouraged to consult with their respective payment networks about liability shifts and rules.

Additional high-level information on the liability shifts is available at GoChipCard.com, a resource provided by the EMV Migration Forum and the Payments Security Task Force.