Designing Value-Based Platforms: Architectural Strategies Derived from the Digital Markets Act

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Stiehle, Fabian, Funke, Markus, Lago, Patricia, Weber, Ingo
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Stiehle, Fabian
Funke, Markus
Lago, Patricia
Weber, Ingo
author_facet Stiehle, Fabian
Funke, Markus
Lago, Patricia
Weber, Ingo
contents The digital markets act (DMA) regulates very large digital platforms like Meta's Facebook or Apple's iOS with the goal to promote fairness, contestability (of market power) and user choice. From a system design or broader technical perspective, the implications of the DMA have not been studied so far. Using systematic methods from qualitative coding and thematic analysis, we investigate the DMA from a technical perspective and derive eight high-level design strategies that serve as fundamental approaches towards value-based architectural goals like 'fair practice', or 'user choice' (as envisioned by the DMA). We investigate how compliance with the DMA has been achieved and derive 15 tactics that we map to our strategies. While the DMA obligations challenge existing platform designs, they also create new opportunities for designing services within these huge ecosystems. We, thus, discuss our strategies in light of both. We see this work as a first step towards filling this pressing gap in the architecture of platform ecosystems, i.e., how to incorporate abstract human values in architecture design.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_08372
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Designing Value-Based Platforms: Architectural Strategies Derived from the Digital Markets Act
Stiehle, Fabian
Funke, Markus
Lago, Patricia
Weber, Ingo
Software Engineering
The digital markets act (DMA) regulates very large digital platforms like Meta's Facebook or Apple's iOS with the goal to promote fairness, contestability (of market power) and user choice. From a system design or broader technical perspective, the implications of the DMA have not been studied so far. Using systematic methods from qualitative coding and thematic analysis, we investigate the DMA from a technical perspective and derive eight high-level design strategies that serve as fundamental approaches towards value-based architectural goals like 'fair practice', or 'user choice' (as envisioned by the DMA). We investigate how compliance with the DMA has been achieved and derive 15 tactics that we map to our strategies. While the DMA obligations challenge existing platform designs, they also create new opportunities for designing services within these huge ecosystems. We, thus, discuss our strategies in light of both. We see this work as a first step towards filling this pressing gap in the architecture of platform ecosystems, i.e., how to incorporate abstract human values in architecture design.
title Designing Value-Based Platforms: Architectural Strategies Derived from the Digital Markets Act
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.08372