The EMV liability shift occurred in the United States in 2015.
Beginning October 1, 2015, major payment networks shifted responsibility for certain counterfeit card-present fraud away from the party that had not adopted chip technology. If a merchant had not installed an EMV-capable terminal while the issuer supplied a chip card, the merchant could become liable; if the merchant was chip-capable but the issuer had not issued a chip card, liability could remain with the issuer.
This was not a law passed on one nationwide date. It was a set of network rules, and the main point-of-sale deadline was implemented by American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa on October 1, 2015. ATM liability shifts followed different schedules, and fuel-pump transactions were given later deadlines.
The shift encouraged merchants to upgrade terminals and issuers to distribute chip cards after years of magnetic-stripe use. It also did not eliminate payment fraud: EMV primarily addresses counterfeit, card-present fraud, while online purchases involve different risks and controls such as 3-D Secure.