thank you very much. you're watching d.w. news still to come on the program a german court throws out a lawsuit against a clothing chain dashing hopes for some compensation for victims of a deadly fire at one of its suppliers factories. has all but more after a short break i'm sara kelley in berlin that you so much for joining us here i mean you have agreed to. go to. sleep. carefully you don't know those two few feet you use to do to.

discover who. subscribe to documentary to. the little bit about. a president prevented a german cord reject a lawsuit against a clothing chain that would have made it partially liable for a deadly fire at one of its suppliers factors also the program teaming up for a better future for ford and an alliance to develop new technologies of the same time ford wants to x.

thousands of jobs in yours. i'm krista of corporal welcome to the program and we start with a verdict that's upsetting to a group of pakistani plaintiffs hoping to set a potentially far reaching precedent but a german court has rejected compensation claims aimed every tailored kick by survivors of a blaze at a textile factory in pakistan and twenty twelve the court ruled that according to pakistani law the claim was no longer valid kick was the main contractor at the karate factory survivors accused germany's biggest clothing discounter of being partially responsible for two hundred fifty people lost their lives and many more were injured if the last week had succeeded it could set a precedent for claims against other german companies operating in low wage countries. take a closer look at this verdict and what it means with. the european center for constitutional and human rights and she represented one of the plaintiffs miriam

what's your reaction to the verdict. well the verdict obviously is very disappointing it was forseeable that the court would decide this way after the expert opinion that it received still it's it's a big disappointment especially for the claimants and other victims of this fire. but we also need to see that with that case we have actually also achieved already a lot meaning that on one hand kick has been paying compensation out of court on a voluntary basis up to six million us dollars and also the whole case has been highlighting the problems of the whole industry and the need for better regulation i want to get to the impact of this court case in just a moment but first of all let me ask you the question of liability wasn't even addressed what do you make of that. yeah that is very disappointing and it's only

due because the court case has been dismissed due to the statute of limitation which has been raised by keke although kate previously had been saying that they are also really interested in the merits of the case and clarifying the standards of liability the court did not decide on that at all so that means to the whole question of to which extend do european based companies. have responsibility of toward staff suppliers is completely up in the air so the president that you were hoping for could not be said do you think this trial nevertheless an impact on a different scale. yes so the merits have not been decided which still means that the whole industry needs to be on their toes because when ever there is a new tick factory disaster the next claim will be brought and we will again ask the courts to make a decision on liability questions also the case has been putting so much pressure

on cake that they were willing to pay in total six million u.s. dollars in an out of court negotiation. and i think at least for the german debate this case has also highlighted that we are desperately in need of better laws and that make us need to be thinking about supply chain liability rules and other fashion labels have put pressure on their suppliers to up their game when it comes to safety what do you make of the situation in the pakistani government sector today. well brands have put pressure on their suppliers but mainly in bangladesh and that is because supply the brands have been on the pressure themselves by civil society and media so that's why they have been putting into place a bangladesh accord in pakistan the pressure was much less and therefore not very much has really changed for workers in their everyday life when it comes to fire safety. of the european center for constitutional and human rights barry thank you

for your thoughts thank you fox wagon and ford will join forces as they develop new technologies the two companies are set to unveil details of a deeper alliance at the detroit motor show next week sources close to that has been say the carmakers are hoping to fend of rivals in electric autonomy driving among them software companies like google another reason for working together the continuing trade for each of us between the united states the european union and china by going forward have said in the past that any alliance would not involve a merger. for more on the story let's bring in early bards our correspondent at the frankfurt stock exchange only what are they getting out of this. well they're getting out of this the ability to pool their resources and make a go of it with more research and development capacity firing power if you will

with more production capacity possibly offering even more flexibility in the future moving between factories in order to accord for regional differences or for model differences and of course the financing working together on these projects would be a huge benefit because putting self driving cars and electric cars on the road now the germans i think ford to have some some back to back a little ways in the development that's going to take huge resources and this is what they hope to profit for of course they're treading a fine line they still remain competitors elsewhere and partnering at the same time now for those in the spotlight for another story today it wants to cut thousands of jobs in europe tell us more. that's it has fifty thousand jobs in europe in total and it's losing money like anything in the third quarter alone in just three months it was a quarter billion dollars and so it wants to cut jobs how many it is not said but

it's going to present a plan. sometime soon a program for twenty one thousand and twenty twenty and one of the elements is supposed to be. getting people to quit voluntarily to resign early and it's going to talk to workers council and union representatives about that ford wants to x. thousands of jobs in europe only bards reporting from the frankfurt stock exchange only thank you. the french tobacco or tobacco shop has been an institution for generations alongside their goal loss cigarettes and live to go newspaper customers can purchase cryptocurrency in their neighborhood shop. it seems like there's one on every corner in french cities that about all tobacco shop now the small store was a selling bitcoins vouches can be bought at the counter and later redeemed for the cryptocurrency restriction the buy must be at least eighteen years old.

to google because of all those who've ordered the two it's much more advantageous in terms of prices and it's easier in terms of transaction at least you're sure not to be giving your bank card details to malicious websites. the business is a joint effort by french financial start up to play out on the association of tobacco retailers around four thousand stores are already on board and many more are expected to take part kopeck hopes to help recover from its collapse in the last year a lot of people now know and for a while are interested in becoming don't know how to buy it even online it's quite complicated even if even the bitcoin concept and blog chain is quite complicated and then buying or or purchasing free to point is if it's another step off of complication of course you store owners are also banking on the new business they

hope can help make up the diminishing tobacco sales. people we are already sell a lot of other things apart from tobacco we do money transfers we sell a lot of telephone related stuff we sell credit to buy things on amazon or other shopping websites and i think big coing goes well with the products we already offer. of course making big koreans more accessible does not automatically mean they'll be more acceptable to skeptics of digital currencies. now let me tell you about a sad statistic i've gone through four printers in the last two years from one day to the other each one just stopped working but of love to have fix them but motivation as we know cannot replace skill it's episodes like these that have resonated with consumer advocates as home appliances become more complex and digitally networked they fear that normal users are losing the ability to make basically paris and if pushed for a so-called right to repair. the household appliance industry seems to have to

develop a love affair with new technology promising smart homes full of network refrigerators washing machines and other electronic devices but many consumers are actually pining for a return to the good old days when appliances lasted much longer and were easier to fix when they broke evidence is mounting that home appliances are breaking down earlier and becoming too complex to fix in many cities activists are setting up volunteer repair shops to help people overcome what many see as planned obsolescence. like with their famous leg. listens more and more known. industry create tricks so that we buy it with more stuff that's why the european commission is in the final stages of

approving regulations to build repairability into the very manufacturing process. the new rules would make it easier for people to disassemble appliances ensure that spare parts are readily available. and the repair instructions are provided. the european appliance manufacturers association says it is basically behind the new regulations as long as they are applied to all competitors and that amateur safety ed liability issues are addressed. that's a show if you want more check out our website that's t w dot com slash business or simply fall off of twitter or facebook for now thanks for watching every successful there.

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sure love his wrist bands i. mean it seems. mucky muck. good shut. the suds. learn respect. for the body. are there welcome to today's edition of euro max starting off with a look at some winter wonderland is what's coming up. on the full.