Discover Financial Services is extending its EMV fraud liability date, for automated fuel dispensers, for six months from Oct. 16 this year until April 16, 2021.

The strategy is to provide some relief to merchants due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release.

The move follows similar actions announced by American Express and Visa earlier this month. Fuel merchants had requested an extension on the deadline to upgrade payment systems due to the financial impact of the pandemic. 

"With the current pandemic impacting merchants around the country, we looked at our mission to be a good partner, and we believe that moving this date will ease the concerns for gas stations as they look to update their automated fuel dispensers," Andrew Hopkins, senior vice president of global products and pricing at Discover, said in the release. "EMV has significantly reduced counterfeit fraud and we encourage our merchants to continue their efforts to migrate their fuel dispensers to EMV."