But will they accept orders from different people all paying with the same bank card? Usually this will make the fraud prevention system ring the alarm bells and refuse consequent payments through this bank card.

I don't believe that merchants are allowed to store card details after the transaction has been authorised; at least that's what merchants tell me very often. The more likely fraud prevention hurdle would be at the bank's end, and that can be more easily overcome.

+1 I agree. And since it's a debit card not a credit card it should be even less of a problem.

I'm considering a French-issued prepaid Visa or MasterCard instead, for example La Banque Postale's "Carte Cadeau", which has a purchase fee of €10 compared to my French bank's debit card annual fee of €40. The French seem remarkably accepting of paying fees for any type of plastic bank card, which would completely deter customers in most other countries.

Ça serait super!! Merci!

So far we have 7 of us, including two friends of mine outside this forum. It's going to be awkward for me to ask friends in France to receive and forward so many items addressed to different people. I'm therefore thinking of using a mail forwarding service. For example, I found French Office which would cost €9.40 for one month including two onward forwardings. I'm keen to keep the costs down but hopefully we can find more participants to spread the cost. Any more ideas on this would be welcome.

Thanks for spending time and trying to help!!

The forwarding option would be good. Or your friends could just send all the packages to you and then you distribute. ;)

They're more like friends of friends. It is asking a bit much to expect them to receive mail at their home address for lots of people they've never heard of. That's why some kind of forwarding option has become necessary.

Got it. ;)
I'm also trying my people in France to see if I could get anything done. Even just the address perhaps. :)