EMV® Level 3 (L3) Participant Systems Guidelines

EMV® Level 3 (L3) Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines Version 1.1 June 2026 © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Legal Notice Page ii / v This document is subject to change by EMVCo at any time. This document does not create any binding obligations upon EMVCo or any third party regarding the subject matter of this document, which obligations will exist, ifat all, only to the extent set forth in separate written agreements executed by EMVCo or such third parties. In the absence of such a written agreement, no product provider, test laboratory or any other third party should rely on this document, and EMVCo shall not be liable for any such reliance. No product provider, test laboratory or other third party may refer to a product, service or facility as EMVCo approved, in form or in substance, nor otherwise state or imply that EMVCo (or any agent of EMVCo) has in whole or part approved a product provider, test laboratory or other third party or its products, services, or facilities, except to the extent and subject to the terms, conditions and restrictions expressly set forth in a written agreement with EMVCo, or in an approval letter, compliance certificate or similar document issued by EMVCo. All other references to EMVCo approval are strictly prohibited by EMVCo. Under no circumstances should EMVCo approvals, when granted, be construed to imply any endorsement or warranty regarding the security, functionality, quality, or performance of any particular product or service, and no party shall state or imply anything to the contrary. EMVCo specifically disclaims any and all representations and warranties with respect to products that have received evaluations or approvals, and to the evaluation process generally, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or non-infringement. All warranties, rights and remedies relating to products and services that have undergone evaluation by EMVCo are provided solely by the parties selling or otherwise providing such products or services, and not by EMVCo, and EMVCo will have no liability whatsoever in connection with such products and services. This document is provided "AS IS" without warranties of any kind, and EMVCo neither assumes nor accepts any liability for any errors or omissions contained in this document. EMVCO DISCLAIMS ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AS TO THIS DOCUMENT. EMVCo makes no representations or warranties with respect to intellectual property rights of any third parties in or in relation to this document. EMVCo undertakes no responsibility to determine whether any implementation of this document may violate, infringe, or otherwise exercise the patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, know-how, or other intellectual property rights of third parties, and thus any person who implements any part of this document should consult an intellectual property attorney before any such implementation. Without limiting the foregoing, this document may provide for the use of public key encryption and other technology, which may be the subject matter of patents in several countries. Any party seeking to implement this document is solely responsible for determining whether its activities require a license to any such technology, including for patents on public key encryption technology. EMVCo shall not be liable under any theory for any party's infringement of any intellectual property rights in connection with this document. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Revision Log – Version 1.1 Page iii / v Version 1.0 1.1 Date March 11, 2024 June 2026 Description First version of the document. Second version of the document. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page iv / v Contents 1 Executive Summary .......................................................................................... 6 1.1 Scope ......................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Audience .................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Purpose...................................................................................................... 7 2 Define Test Plan ................................................................................................ 8 2.1 Define Version Numbers ............................................................................ 8 2.2 Define the ICS Questions ........................................................................... 8 2.3 Identify Questions and Values Dependencies............................................. 8 2.4 Identify Test Cases Applicability Conditions ............................................... 8 2.5 Define Bitmap............................................................................................. 9 3 Build Test Plan Files ....................................................................................... 10 3.1 Create Questions File ............................................................................... 10 3.1.1 Common Questions ...................................................................... 10 3.2 Create Suggestions File ........................................................................... 10 3.2.1 Data type consistency ................................................................... 10 3.3 Create Errors File ..................................................................................... 10 3.4 Create Cards File ..................................................................................... 10 3.5 Create Test Cases File ............................................................................. 10 3.5.1 Multiple cards used in same test case........................................... 11 3.5.2 IsRegression attribute ................................................................... 11 3.6 Create Test Case Selection File ............................................................... 11 3.7 Create Pass Criteria File .......................................................................... 11 3.7.1 3.7.2 3.7.3 3.7.4 Coding of Manual checks.............................................................. 11 SIM_PIN_DECRYPTION .............................................................. 12 Handling of Format 1 vs Format 2 data ......................................... 12 Multiple transactions in same test case......................................... 13 3.8 Create Information Report File ................................................................. 13 3.9 Create Machine Readable User Actions File ............................................ 13 4 Build Help Files ............................................................................................... 14 4.1 Create Help File ....................................................................................... 14 4.2 Create Test Reference File....................................................................... 14 5 Build CSS File.................................................................................................. 15 6 Build Test Card Images .................................................................................. 16 6.1 Padding supported in card response ........................................................ 16 © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page v / v 6.2 CDOL1 in C8 card images........................................................................ 16 6.3 emvcard.CardTVR(value) in C8 card images............................................ 16 6.4 emvcard.AC() in C8 card images.............................................................. 16 7 Build Online Message Log.............................................................................. 17 7.1 TLV data representation in OML............................................................... 17 7.2 Common Syntax for Online Message Responses..................................... 17 © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 6 / 18 1 Executive Summary EMVCo has defined guidelines and specifications that collectively help to facilitate a standardised approach to the development, qualification and usage of test tools required by financial institution clients and their service providers to perform Level 3 terminal integration testing on EMV contact and contactless acceptance devices. A key component of these deliverables is the EMV® Level 3 Testing Framework – Implementation Guidelines [L3FIG] that provides its targeted audiences with specific implementation details and instructions for creating and supporting various technical components of the L3 Framework. These components include: • Machine-readable L3 Test Card image format - representing the expected card behaviours for each set of Payment System test card images. • Test Set files for the Test Selection Engine (TSE) component – defining the methodology for test case selection, questions to be asked by the TSE, errors to be reported by the TSE in exception cases, Pass/Fail Criteria definitions, etc. • Test Session file – generated by the TSE following user entry and used by the TSE to provide instruction to the Test Tool engine on which cases are to be executed. • Test Reporting and Logging formats – including the Card to Terminal Log and the Online Message Log The framework allows Participant Systems to provide tools vendors with the above machinereadable files containing unambiguous definitions and instructions on how to drive L3 certifications. The proper generation of relevant L3 Test Set files and L3 Test Card images, meeting both the individual Participant System functional requirements and the EMVCo L3 framework requirements, is therefore an important constituent of streamlining L3 testing efforts for key stakeholders. 1.1 Scope The purpose of this Participant Systems Guidelines document is to avoid variances in the creation and handling of L3 Test Set files and L3 Test Card images. The goal of having a common L3 standard for Participant Systems and Test Tool Providers is to be able to recognise and handle data in the same, unambiguous, manner, ensuring that customers have a seamless L3 certification testing experience. 1.2 Audience Participant Systems creating L3 Test Set files and L3 Test Card images. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 7 / 18 1.3 Purpose This document is intended to be a Participant System’s supportive document. It provides its targeted audience with directives and process details for creating suitable L3 Test Set files and L3 Test Card images. It is intended to be a companion document to the EMV® Level 3 Testing Framework – Implementation Guidelines (L3FIG). © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 2 Define Test Plan Page 8 / 18 2.1 Define Version Numbers Assign series and build number: • The series number is a unique identifier that represents a particular testing purpose. It is anticipated that a given Participant System will assign a unique identifier for the purpose of their L3 testing. • The build number represents the version of the file within the series. Higher version numbers within the same series identify newer versions of the same data set. It is expected that L3 TSE supports the latest version of data files. 2.2 Define the ICS Questions For each ICS entry, define, from the functional requirements: • The prompt that will be displayed to the user • The type of answer expected (boolean, integer, string, choice from a list, choice(s) from a set, etc.) and the allowed values when applicable • The preferred mode, that is, the preferred layout for the entry (e.g. list vs. dropdown list) and whether the entry is optional or mandatory • The help text that will be displayed next to the prompt • The question screen (group) it belongs to and its title (if relevant) • The help text that will be displayed on the question screen (if relevant) Assign a unique identifier to each ICS entry. 2.3 Identify Questions and Values Dependencies Identify, from the functional requirements, all dependencies that may affect the way questions are asked or not asked, the values proposed, etc. Define the way each dependency will be implemented in the Test Set, e.g. through conditional questions, forced values, removed values, warning messages, error messages, etc. 2.4 Identify Test Cases Applicability Conditions Identify, from the functional requirements, all test cases and their applicability conditions. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 9 / 18 2.5 Define Bitmap Define the bitmap layout that will be used for all masks and expected values in both ICS processing and in test case selection. Do this by identifying each and every basic, binary condition resulting from either an ID/value relation, an Additional Condition or an Applicability Condition identified at Step 2.3 and 2.4. Conditions must then be expressed in the syntax as defined in [L3FIG], and a bit must be assigned to each condition, padding on the left to obtain a multiple of 8 bits. The resulting bitmap will serve as the Bit Definition Fields headings from the various CSV files that will be created. Example: Condition Acq_Country = ‘United States’ Acq_Country = ‘Belgium’ Term_Type = ’ATM’ Acq_Country = ‘Portugal’ Term_Type = ‘Attended POS’ Term_Type = ‘Bank Branch Terminal’ Expression in [L3FIG] Syntax “Acq_Country = United States” “Acq_Country = Belgium” “Term_Type = ATM” “Acq_Country = Portugal” “Term_Type = Attended POS” “Term_Type = Bank Branch Terminal” Bit 0 Bit 1 Bit 2 Bit 3 Bit 4 Bit 5 Bit 6 Bit 7 “ unused” “ unused” “ Acq_Country = United States” “ Acq_Country = Belgium” “ Acq_Country = Portugal” “ Term_Type = ATM” “ Term_Type = Attended POS” “ Term_Type = Bank Branch Terminal” © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 3 Build Test Plan Files Page 10 / 18 3.1 Create Questions File Fill in the Questions File CSV template. There must be an entry for each and every question identified. For questions that are conditional, the entry must feature the appropriate values for the fields Mask1, Mask2, HexMask1 and HexMask2. 3.1.1 Common Questions EMVCo has created a common questions list that may be used for the development of TSEC. Available upon request through the EMVCo query system. 3.2 Create Suggestions File Fill in the Suggestions File CSV template, using the appropriate values for the fields Mask1, Mask2, HexMask1 and HexMask2, as per the additional conditions identified. 3.2.1 Data type consistency Note that the question type (number, boolean, string) shall align with the type of corresponding suggested answers in the suggestions file. A data type mismatch will lead to unexpected behaviour in the L3 TSE Tools. From a machine-readable point of view, the data types across the csv files shall always match. 3.3 Create Errors File Fill in the Errors File CSV template, using the appropriate values for the fields Mask 1, Mask2, HexMask1 and HexMask2, as per the conditions identified. 3.4 Create Cards File Fill in the Cards File CSV template. 3.5 Create Test Cases File Fill in the Test Cases File CSV template. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 11 / 18 3.5.1 Multiple cards used in same test case The FIG documents prior version 1.3 does not support automatic selection of test cards based on the project context; this has been addressed in FIG version 1.3 with “machine readable user actions” that include context-related data with masks. For older Test file based on FIG before v1.3, Participant Systems shall rely on manual card image selection based on guidelines provided to the tester in the current ‘text” user actions 3.5.2 IsRegression attribute The IsRegression attribute shall be specified with values ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and cannot be empty in the Test Cases File. 3.6 Create Test Case Selection File Fill in the Test Case Selection File CSV template, using the appropriate values for the fields Mask1, Mask2, HexMask1 and HexMask2, depending on the test case applicability conditions. 3.7 Create Pass Criteria File Fill in the Pass Criteria File CSV template. 3.7.1 Coding of Manual checks During L3TT qualification, we have identified an issue related to the coding of Manual checks in EMVCo L3 test sets. Bulletin 251 suggests that “For a Pass Criteria, the Commentary shall be displayed”, however, this doesn’t seem to be applicable to manual checks. The qualification material that has been used to qualify L3TT does not rely on the “Commentary” field (it is empty) and is expecting the human readable text to be retrieved from the “Value” field only: Tes t Commentary CheckNumber StepOfCheck IsMandatory DataItem DataFormat DataItemName Operator Value Test.01 1 1 MANDATORY MANUAL Text of the manual = check to be displayed We have checked the qualified L3TT’s and, while one tool is displaying both the Commentary and the Value for Manual checks, the other qualified L3TT’s only display the Value. Until further notice, we ask Participant Systems to always populate both the Value and the Commentary with the text to be displayed in L3TT. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 12 / 18 3.7.2 SIM_PIN_DECRYPTION During L3TT qualification, we have identified a gap between the FIG and the Host Log syntax. It appears that the SIM_PIN_DECRYPTION instruction does not have a corresponding entry in the section and cannot be validated by L3TT: N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A In order to resolve this issue, we would require a major update of the EMVCo L3 Host Log format. At the moment, it seems that this instruction is not used by Participant Systems. Until further notice, we ask Participant Systems to avoid using the SIM_PIN_DECRYPTION syntax in their EMVCo L3 test sets, and use the SIM_PIN_VALIDATION instruction instead. i.e. SIM_PIN_DECRYPTION was listed in FIG1.1 and has been removed from FIG1.2 3.7.3 Handling of Format 1 vs Format 2 data An issue has been identified in a production Test Set in relation with the handling of Format 1 vs Format 2 data retrieved from GPO/GEN AC Responses. Currently, the L3 framework does not expect test tools to add any additional logic for interpreting and validating the DOL related data, unless explicitly specified in the FIG. An example of incorrect implementation is to use a pass criteria such as APDU.80A8.ICC.TAG.82.BYTE.0.BIT.7 = 1 when the card used in the L3 test case is answering to the GPO command with Format 1 data. In this case, there is no TLV structure in the response and the search for Tag 82 fails. A correct pass criteria such as APDU.80A8.ICC.BYTE.XX.BIT.7 is required instead. The L3 framework allows syntax to define both Format 1 and Format 2 pass criteria. To correct this, multiple options are available: • Use a specific question to allow conditional pass criteria in the test plan • Use the OR operator with 2 pass criteria addressing both Format 1 and Format 2, as described below: Chec k Step DataItem Operator Value IfFail IfTrue 1 1 APDU.80A8.ICC.TAG.82.BYTE.0.BIT.7 1 2 APDU.80A8.ICC.BYTE.XX.BIT.7 = 12 = 1 FAIL PASS PASS If the 1st step (Format 1) cannot be evaluated or incorrectly evaluated, the Test Tool goes to step 2 and evaluates the second pass criteria (Format 2). With this pass criteria format, the test tool can cover both formats. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 13 / 18 3.7.4 Multiple transactions in same test case Multiple transactions can be part of the same test case. When this happens, Card-to-Terminal logs and online message logs may contain multiple transactions. Please refer to EMVCo_L3_Framework_Implementation_Guidelines_v_1.3_r and bulletin for detail. The pass/fail criteria of NET.0?00.DE.004 STRING(“000000000000”) will now evaluate whether the Field 004 amount is not zero in the transaction located by the FIND operator. Alternatively, IN or IL instructions could also be used. 3.8 Create Information Report File Fill in the Information Report File CSV template. Please refer to FIG requirements 6.2, 7.0 to 7.3, 8.3, 13.3 and FIG section 4.1.6. 3.9 Create Machine Readable User Actions File Fill in the Machine Readable User Actions File CSV template (if relevant). © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 4 Build Help Files Page 14 / 18 4.1 Create Help File Optionally, create the Help file in HTML format. The intention is to provide information on the use of the Test Set to the tester in an HTML file that is distributed in the Test Set package (.tsec). Currently, the Help file can only be retrieved manually from the Test Set package (.tsec). However, an improvement to FIG 1.2 could define a direct link to the Help file from the L3 TSE interface. The help file may mark help topics using standard html anchors such as “” and tools should navigate to these anchors if the user clicks on a help link. Save it as “P_N_S_V_test_help.html”, where: P is the relevant EMVCo L3 Participant System Identifier N is the Participant System-assigned name S is the Participant System-assigned series number for the Test Set V is the Participant System-assigned version number for the Test Set 4.2 Create Test Reference File Create the Test Reference file in HTML format. The test reference file is an HTML file providing a complete list of all tests cases and test cards that may be used in the testing process. The intention is that tools display this file on demand to testers who wish to view a textual representation of all the possible test cases. Save it as “P_N_S_V_test_reference.html”, where: P is the relevant EMVCo L3 Participant System Identifier N is the Participant System-assigned name S is the Participant System-assigned series number for the Test Set V is the Participant System-assigned version number for the Test Set The test reference file shall be present and not empty in the Test Set package (.tsec). © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 15 / 18 5 Build CSS File Optionally, create the CSS file. The Doc_Style css (Cascading Style Sheets) file can be optionally used to apply a specific style sheet for rendering the HTML code defined in the Information Report (info.csv), if supported by the L3 TSE. This file shall not include or elements. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 16 / 18 6 Build Test Card Images Create Test Card Images as per the machine-readable L3 Test Card image format defined in the FIG. 6.1 Padding supported in card response The way to define a card image that supports padding between TLV data objects in a card response shall be defined as below: Raw data response including the padding 6.2 CDOL1 in C8 card images The CDOL1 value must be defined in any C8 card images. It can be defined: - in response to GET PROCESSING OPTIONS command answer (Tag ’8C’), - in response to READ RECORD command (Tag ’8C’). The value must be the same as Default CDOL1 (tag ‘9F8220'). 6.3 emvcard.CardTVR(value) in C8 card images The value parameter is 5-bytes mandatory data. 6.4 emvcard.AC() in C8 card images When TT_ARQC_VALIDATE is used in a pass criteria, Participant System must set ‘Do not copy IAD MAC in IAD’ in Application Interchange Profile (tag ’82 Byte 2 bit 3-2) in their C8 L3 cards images, in order to keep the emvcard.AC() calculation/validation integrity. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 17 / 18 7 Build Online Message Log These logs are automatically built by Network Simulators based on the EMVCo Level 3 Online Message Format defined in the FIG. 7.1 TLV data representation in OML For TLV data present in OML, it is strongly recommended that Participant Systems use format="V" (Value only) for both FieldBinary and FieldViewable, as per below example: Terminal verification results b5 00 00 00 80 01 0000008001 INFO 7.2 Common Syntax for Online Message Responses EMVCo has created the “Common Syntax for Online Message Responses” specifications that may be used by the Participant Systems. The document is publicly available in EMVCo website. © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries. EMV® L3 Testing Framework Participant Systems Guidelines v1.1 Page 18 / 18 *** END OF DOCUMENT *** © 2026 EMVCo, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution and other use of this document is permitted only pursuant to the applicable agreement between the user and EMVCo found at www.emvco.com. EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo, LLC in the United States and other countries.