Have your say
Call for Evidence: Vet Bills Pricing
Over the past 20 years, the cost of veterinary care has increased at almost twice the rate of inflation. This sharp rise has raised concerns about affordability and consistency in pricing across different providers. We’re conducting an investigation into how vet bills vary between practices and companies. By gathering information from the public, we hope to build a clearer picture of the factors influencing these price differences. If you’ve recently paid for veterinary...
Closed consultations
Vets market investigation: remedies working paper
In a set of working papers(External link) published earlier this year, the CMA set out a number of potential competition concerns with the vets market that could be leading to poor outcomes for pet owners – including, in some instances, prices that are higher than they should be. We've published a remedies working paper, in which we set out our current thinking on a potential package of remedies that may be needed if we were to find competition concerns that we'd need to address....
Rules for digital markets competition regime levy
The Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) purpose is to help people, businesses and the UK economy by protecting competition and tackling unfair behaviour. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 gives the CMA powers to charge a levy to firms designated with Strategic Market Status (SMS). The final levy rules set out the methodology for the calculation and apportionment of the levy among SMS firms. The CMA consulted on the proposed approach to a levy...
Feedback and results
Issues we have consulted on and their outcomes.
We asked
Whether pet owners can find and compare prices for common procedures and treatments, whether referral arrangements, ownership or vertical structures affect competition and choice, and whether clear, comparable signals of quality and reliable online information exist to help owners choose — alongside related questions about local access, insurance/payment arrangements and any barriers facing new entrants.
You said
Prices are often hard to compare, with wide variation in routine procedure fees and frequent unexpected add-on charges; choice is constrained in some areas and long waits reduce effective choice; respondents flagged opaque referral agreements and vertically integrated groups that can steer work within chains; insurers and billing practices can obscure true costs; and online discoverability, paid listings and patchy quality data mean many owners rely on word-of-mouth or local reputation rather than comparable information.
We did
We analysed consultation responses and published anonymised price examples and a geographic access map to highlight local market constraints; requested contractual and supplier information from major providers and engaged directly with insurers; commissioned an exploratory review of online advertising and disclosure practices and set out a menu of potential remedies (from improved transparency measures to more targeted interventions) for further comment; and launched targeted follow-up evidence requests where gaps remained — while noting we have not yet reached a conclusion on whether remedies will be necessary or, if so, what form they should take.
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