The link to the article on StorefrontBacktalk is below (thanks Evan) - this is really interesting.  It appears that VISA is providing an extension to ExxonMobil on the July 1st, 2010 PA-DSS deadline…

This implies two things (as far as I can see):

1. That the deadline everyone was wondering about is legit - why would ExxonMobil feel the need to negotiate an extension with VISA unless the deadline was going to mean something and VISA was going to enforce it at some meaningful level?
2. If you are big enough, VISA is going to play ball…

Not sure that #2 bodes all that well for smaller merchants (of all types) as I doubt that VISA’s all that interested in negotiating with everyone of extensions.

As is mentioned in the article, providing extensions to this sort of deadline creates problems unless you make them very, very rarely.  Which, again, strengthens the case for July 1st being a ‘real’ deadline for merchants.

We are currently doing a LOT of PA-DSS work for software clients, but, at this point those applications, even if they are validated prior to the first of July, will most likely not be fully deployed at merchant sites….

It’s getting interesting as July approaches.

StorefrontBacktalk » Blog Archive » ExxonMobil Discovers That A PCI Deadline Is A Deadline, Unless It Isn’t.