JCPenney, a popular department store in the United States, this month said that it has reactivated contactless payments options including Apple Pay in all of its retail stores.
The information was shared by a JCPenney support employee on Twitter, who also said that Apple Pay would be accepted in stores starting June 19th. Given that it's now June 27, Apple Pay should be working in JCPenney retail locations once again.
JCPenney earlier this year eliminated support for Apple Pay and other contactless payment options due to an April 13 deadline from Visa for retiring legacy magnetic stripe contactless technology in favor of EMV technology.
A third-party credit card brand made the requirement for all merchants to actively support EMV contactless functionality effective April 13, retiring the legacy MSD contactless technology in place. Given the resources and lead time associated with meeting the new mandate, JCPenney chose to suspend all contactless payment options until a later date. Customers still have the ability to complete their transactions manually by inserting or swiping their physical credit cards at our point-of-sale terminals in stores, an option employed by the vast majority of JCPenney shoppers.
At the time Apple Pay was pulled from retail stores and the JCPenney app, JCPenney did not provide details on if and when it might be reinstated.
JCP is happy to share that we are working to reactivate contactless payment options and therefore mobile wallet transactions will be accepted in all of our stores by June 19th. — Ask JCPenney (@askjcp) June 14, 2019
Prior to the end of Apple Pay support, JCPenney had offered the payment option since 2015, when it first rolled out to JCPenney stores.
