The anti‑steering provision of Article 5 (4) of the DMA: a law and economics assessment on the business model of gatekeepers and business users

Since some large platforms act as gatekeepers, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) was introduced in Oct. 2022 to ensure a fairer business environment. This paper analyzes the consequences of the 4th obligation of Art. 5 of the DMA. Using a simple game theory model, we ana lyze the changes in incentives for diferent business models implied by the obliga tion. In fact, the obligation increases the incentives for the business users to use the platform because new customers can be acquired. The incentives for establishing an independent web shop also increase. Furthermore, more data is available, both for the platform and the business users. However, the platform is likely to beneft more from the increase in data collection and is incentivized to become vertically inte grated. Finally, the fees imposed by the platform may increase.