German retailers are against the adoption of SEPA payments

From: Payment News and Industry Social Networking - 2008 (epnn)

German Retailer Federation (HDE) is against plans to give up direct-debit payments which are settlement instruments for cash-and-carry and services bills. The method is not compliant with the standards of the European Central Banks' Single European Payments Area (SEPA).
Germans are more inclined to use direct debit, which uses data from an ATM card combined with a signature of the cardholder, instead of credit cards. An advantage of this method is that firms may make direct debit entries after receiving the approval from the customer via a phone call, without a signature or any other identification method. The German retailers fear they may be facing higher settlement costs for payments if ECB's SEPA project is adopted.
SEPA has been launched in 2008 and will be implemented across the 15 countries that share the Euro. The project aims to standardize retail payments in Euro, enabling payments under the same conditions from a single account, regardless of its location.
Germany's central bank and credit lobbyists are discussing when direct debt is to be abolished. HDE, the German Retailer Federation claims that direct debit and SEPA complaint settlement could coexist.
HDE consists of about 410,000 independent companies with a yearly turnover of more than EUR 550 billion. The German Retail Federation represents the needs and interests of the whole retail sector. It has 100,000 business members from all sectors, locations and sizes. The HDE head office is located in Berlin.