The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) represents a misguided attempt to regulate digital marketplaces, resurrecting the outdated and deeply flawed Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm. This essay argues that the DMA’s structural approach is not merely ill-suited to the dynamic nature of digital markets, but actively harmful, threatening to stifle innovation, impede market progress, and ultimately harm the very consumers it purports to protect.The SCP paradigm, which forms the bedrock of the DMA, is a relic of mid-20th century industrial economics, woefully inadequate for understanding modern digital ecosystems. This framework naively posits that market structure determines firm conduct which, in turn, affects market performance. In clinging to this outdated model, EU

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