There are no new credit card chip laws, because the government isn’t regulating the U.S. switch to EMV, chip-enabled cards. Nobody will get arrested or fined for using a credit or debit card without a chip in it, nor will merchants face legal consequences for not updating to EMV-compliant payment terminals.
Consequences for Merchants Who Aren’t EMV-Compliant
The EMV transition in the U.S. is a push by the credit card industry to stop costly fraudulent charges, because research shows that EMV is a more secure and fraud-resistant payment method. There may not be legal consequences for merchants who don’t adopt chip-and-pin payment processing, but there are financial consequences. Since October 1, 2015, merchants operating without chip-enabled payment systems have been on the hook for fraudulent charges, rather than credit card companies.
Because of those changes, chipped credit cards are becoming commonplace. In 2021-2022, almost 85% of card-present purchases in the U.S. were made using EMV-enabled cards on EMV-compliant payment systems, according to, according to EMVCo.
Significant Drop in Lost Fraud Dollars
The transition seems to be achieving its intended effect, too. Merchants with EMV-enabled payment systems have seen an 87% drop in lost fraud dollars in March 2019, compared to September 2015, according to a 2019 Visa study.