Vets should publish prices and cap prescription costs, watchdog says

Vets in the UK could be forced to publish price lists and put a cap on the cost of providing prescriptions, under sweeping changes proposed by the UK’s competition watchdog.

Pet owners may be overpaying for medicines and are not being given enough information about their vet and the prices of treatments, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found.

The regulator has been investigating the £6.3 billion veterinary services market over concerns about how it is run.

It found market-wide issues which mean consumers are not benefiting from strong competition between vet businesses.

In particular, pet owners may be paying twice as much for commonly prescribed medicines from vet practices that they could pay online, amounting to hundreds of pounds extra.

They also have no effective way of comparing vet prices when they get a pet or move areas, and often are not given estimates for courses of treatment that can run into thousands of pounds, the investigation found.

The CMA said pet owners pay 16.6% more on average at large vet groups than at independent vets.

Furthermore, the watchdog found that the current system regulates vet professionals but not vet businesses, despite the majority of practices being part of a large corporate group.

It is therefore not fit for purpose and needs to be modernised, it concluded.

Martin Coleman, chairman of the inquiry group, said: “Pet owners are often left in the dark, not knowing whether their practice is independent or part of a chain or what a fair price looks like.

“They are sometimes committing to expensive treatment without understanding the price in advance.

“And they do not always feel confident asking for a prescription or buying medicine online – even when it could save them hundreds of pounds.

“We are proposing major reforms aimed at bringing about a transformation in the experience of pet owners and empowering them to make the best choices for their circumstances.

“We believe that our proposals would enable pet owners to choose the right vet, the right treatment, and the right way to purchase medicine – without confusion or unnecessary cost.”

The CMA set out 21 changes that it is proposing to address the issues in the market.

One of its proposed measures is for vet businesses to publish comprehensive price lists, and to be clear if they are part of a large group rather than being an independent practice.

Vets could be made to tell pet owners if it is cheaper to buy medicines online and, where it is needed frequently, automatically provide a written prescription that would enable people to buy medicine elsewhere.

They could also be required to cap the price of providing prescriptions at £16, under the proposals.

The CMA said its proposals would be good for vets who sometimes face abuse from frustrated customers.

The regulator has opened a consultation into its provisional findings, with interested parties given the chance to respond before a final decision is published in March next year.

Sue Davis, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said the CMA’s proposals “should be implemented as soon as possible to restore consumer confidence in vet services”.

“It’s clear that the regulation of this market has become outdated, to the detriment of both pet owners and vet practices,” she added.

CVS Group, which runs about 500 vet practices in the UK, said it welcomed the “certainty” the CMA’s plans brings but that it does not believe all its proposals are justified.

The company said in a statement: “Whilst we do not believe that all of these remedies are fully justified, we will be working with the CMA to refine the remedies package to ensure it is workable and deliverable and have plans in place to implement them, including joint branding of our practices and the publishing of standardised price lists.”