Short answers, pulled from the story.
Competition law, also known as antitrust law or anti-monopoly law, regulates anti-competitive conduct by companies to promote or maintain market competition. It prohibits three main categories of conduct: agreements or practices that restrict free trade and competition (including cartels), abusive behavior by a firm that dominates a market, and mergers or acquisitions that significantly impede effective competition.
Canada enacted what is considered the first competition statute of modern times in 1889, one year before the United States passed the Sherman Act of 1890. The Canadian law was called the Act for the Prevention and Suppression of Combinations formed in restraint of Trade.
The Sherman Act of 1890 is the foundational US antitrust statute, named after Senator John Sherman. Section 1 declared illegal every contract or conspiracy in restraint of trade among the states or with foreign nations. Section 2 prohibited monopolies or attempts to monopolize. Sherman argued that the act applied old and well-recognized principles of common law rather than announcing a new legal principle.
EU competition law has its origins in the European Coal and Steel Community agreement of 1951, signed by France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany. The agreement aimed to prevent Germany from re-establishing dominance in coal and steel production, which was believed to have contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War. Article 65 banned cartels and Article 66 addressed mergers and abuse of dominant positions.
By 2008, 111 countries had enacted competition laws, representing more than 50 percent of countries with a population exceeding 80,000 people. Of those 111 countries, 81 had adopted their competition laws in the previous 20 years, a spread linked to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the expansion of the European Union.
Microsoft received an eventual fine of 497 million euros in Microsoft v. Commission for including its Windows Media Player with the Microsoft Windows platform. The European Commission found that tying the two products together restricted consumer choice and deprived competitors of market access.