Understanding the CMA’s provisional decision in its vets market investigation
Information for vets and vet nurses about the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) provisional decision in its veterinary services market investigation.
Introduction
The CMA has been looking into the veterinary services market since September 2023. We have now published our provisional decision, and we are consulting on this.
This page explains those parts of our provisional decision which are most relevant to you, how to find out more and how to respond to the consultation.
You do not need to make any immediate changes at this stage.
Anyone who wants to respond to the consultation needs to submit a response on or before 12 November.
We particularly want to hear from:
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vets and vet nurses
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people who own or manage a vet business
Provisional decision
We have set out our provisional decision that there are competition problems in this market.
We think this is primarily because of:
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pet owners not being given adequate and timely information (for example on ownership, prices for services and treatments, and options for purchasing medicines)
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barriers to pet owners making appropriate choices
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an out-of-date regulatory framework
Where we find competition problems, we must consider measures (‘remedies’) to address them. In the provisional decision, we have proposed a package of remedies.
Some of these would involve introducing new legal requirements which would be contained in a CMA ‘Order’. We have provisionally decided that we would impose the Order on vet businesses so that they would bear the responsibility for compliance. The Order would set out specific, legally binding obligations on businesses. If they do not comply with those obligations, the CMA could take action to enforce the Order. This action can include the CMA:
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working with a business to change its practices to stop the breach
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issuing a binding set of instructions (‘directions’) requiring the business to take steps to comply with the Order
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imposing a financial penalty on the business for breaching the Order
If you own or manage a practice
If our remedies go ahead, you might have to change things in your business. You do not need to make any changes at this stage. We would consult further before making any Order.
The changes could include requirements to:
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provide a price list for specific services and treatments and certain other information on websites (if you have a website) and in your practices
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provide itemised bills for treatments and services
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provide a written estimate for treatments that could reasonably be expected to cost more than £500
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inform pet owners that they can get written prescriptions and that medicines may be cheaper online
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cap the fee for providing a written prescription
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provide information to the RCVS (for example pricing information, to go on their Find a Vet page)
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if you have more than one practice, making it clear that your practices are owned by a group
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have a complaint process that meets certain specified criteria
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confirming to the RCVS every year that you are doing these things
You may be doing some of these things already, such as providing itemised billing or using a complaints process that meets our criteria. You could start thinking about how you might comply with certain remedies that we have proposed, such as putting a price list on your website along the lines we suggest or providing written estimates for more expensive treatments.
If we decide to put an Order in place, we have 6 months after publishing our final decision to do this. We would consult on any Order before it comes into force. Vet businesses would then have a further period to comply with the Order, and this would generally be longer for smaller vet businesses (those with fewer than 15 practices). Businesses with only one practice would have to comply with the remedies, but unlike larger businesses would not need to confirm to the RCVS that they are doing so.
If you’re an employee
The vet business where you work would need to have written policies and processes to ensure that vets and vet nurses are able to act in line with relevant parts of the RCVS Codes and Guidance (for example those on providing pet owners with independent and impartial advice, and appropriate and timely information about treatment options and prices). This might include additional training on communications with pet owners.
If vet businesses fail to do so or were to put pressure on vets to act in certain ways or sell certain treatments, they could potentially be in breach of the Order.
Benefits of the provisional decision
We believe that the measures we are proposing would be beneficial to the sector as a whole, including vets and vet nurses.
Pricing
If we put our remedies in place, vet businesses will need to publish prices and information about who owns the business. It will be easier for pet owners to see this information and compare practices.
We anticipate that providing better information for pet owners will increase their confidence in vet businesses and the profession.
Complaints
Having a good complaint process should help support relationships between the profession and pet owners.
Transparency
Our proposed measures would mean that pet owners would be able to compare the prices for a range of services across different vet practices in their area. It would also make clear which first opinion practices are independent and which are not, and allow pet owners to compare the different offerings available to them.
We have also proposed a regular survey which would indicate customer satisfaction with each of the large groups and how they compare to independent practices overall.
Out of hours contracts
Our remedies would make it easier for vet practices to terminate out of hours contracts with third parties that provide this service to their customers, where they believe there is a better alternative.
Where to find detailed information
If you would like to understand how we have reached our provisional conclusions and what our proposed remedies package includes, read our summary document.
Remedies package
Vets are likely to be most interested in reading the sections where we set out our remedies package. This is in part B of the provisional decision report.
There is a table that summarises the remedies on page 2 of part B.
Assessment of sector issues
We present our provisional assessment of the problems in the market and the evidence that supports this in part A.
How and when to respond
We welcome responses by the end of 12 November 2025.
What happens next
We will consider responses to the provisional decision, and any relevant new evidence, such as the research that is underway with pet owners to explore how they would respond to some of our proposed remedies.
Final decision
We will publish our final decision before the statutory deadline (May 2026). This is likely to be in February or March 2026.