Fewer than half the nation’s restaurants and stores are equipped to accept harder-to-counterfeit EMV credit cards during the peak year-end shopping season, according to a new study of small-business preparation.
The survey by Paychex also found that only about two-thirds (69 percent) of restaurants and retail establishments are aware of the increased liability they face by not accepting the new chip-embedded cards.
Part of the problem could be adoption pains. Of those establishments that have switched to new card readers, only about half (55 percent) characterized the changeover as “smooth” or “easy.”
The issue is not an embrace of the new cards by consumers, suggests the report. It found that 75 percent of shoppers are now carrying EMV cards, and 61 percent said they have used the smart plastic to make a purchase.
Despite restaurants and stores’ low adoption rates, they are still ahead of the business community as a whole in adopting EMV technology, the study found. Fewer than one-third of all commercial enterprises have installed EMV equipment, and only 56 percent are aware of the additional liability they’ve faced for credit-card fraud since Oct. 1.
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