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What is surprising in this article is the idea to "force merchant"...!

It's a bit like if Apple would force Iphone 4S customers to buy an Iphone 6 by 2020 !

I doubt merchant will accept such deal presented in such a way as turning an innovation into an obligation appears to be pretty agressive.

Wait and see...

Ludger,

The use of word "forces" in the title is misleading - clearly written by someone who doesn't understand the current dynamic.

Given how quickly prices for NFC-ready POS terminals have fallen, their cost shouldn't be an issue for any merchant. The six year horizon confortably gives time to any retailer to accomodate at least one POS replacement cycle. MasterCard is just sending a clear message: "please ensure you take care of contactless during your next POS replacement".

Actually, they could have given just 2 or 3 years - that would have been "forcing".

@LudgerW: Isn't it a common practice for tech companies to support only the current version and one prior version but none earlier than that? We keep hearing of announcements of withdrawal of support for Windows, Office, SAP, and so on. I'm not an Apple user but I'd be terribly surprised if Apple will provide any support for iPhone 6 - let alone 4S - in 2020. Why should MasterCard be the exception to this industrywide practice? 

@Andrei : Thanks for your feedback regarding eventual current Mastercard dynamic. So, if the word “forces” has been used in a buzz target, then Finextra becomes more of a trendy than professional website...which I dought.

When an ICS gives an end-date to the market, I strongly believe they should reconsider their customer relationship policy. Therefore, although it appears like a soft recommandation it still isn’t Mastercard best communication and that’s my point.

@Ketharaman : Thanks for your comment. I have only one answer to both of your question : We are in a B2B business rather than B2C and other alternatives exist.

Ludger,

I understand where you're coming from, but schemes have experience from the EMV migration - they know that simply asking doesn't get too far - they only way to introduce a new tech on a mass scale is to enforce it... a little bit... :)

Except misleding word 'Force'  in blog title nothing new about this announcement from card network company - MasterCard.

We have seen Triple DES compliance, EMV migration announcements which had been taken its actual course for each region.

I can connect dots of VISA 's HCE announcement, ISIS (now Softcard), MCX and many more announcements hinting on contact less - either in implementation stage or design stage apart from their own figures would have prompted to give indication towards Tap and Pay.

@LudgerW: TY for your reply. By citing the example of SAP, I thought I'd covered B2B. While I agree with you that other alternatives exist, (1) That's equally true of B2C (2) US retailers might not agree - the crux of their lawsuits against V/MC is that they don't have too many alternatives!