The UK’s Competition Watchdog Wants to Rewrite the Rules of Practice Life

When the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA, comes knocking, it does not just ask politely. Unlike its U.S. cousins at the FTC or DOJ, the CMA has the power to impose sector-wide rules without waiting for Parliament to sign off. That authority is now squarely focused on veterinary medicine. After launching a sweeping review of the veterinary services market in September 2023, the CMA has proposed reforms that could fundamentally reshape how veterinary businesses operate, price services, and sell medicines. For veterinary professionals, this is not just policy chatter. It is a potential turning point for the profession’s business model, client relationships, and regulatory landscape.

The scale of the CMA’s investigation alone is eye opening. The authority received around 56,000 responses to its call for information. Roughly 45,000 came from the public and 11,000 from people working in the veterinary industry. That represents about one in five veterinarians and veterinary nurses in the U.K., an unusually high engagement rate for a regulatory review. The findings reflect what many practices have felt on the ground. According to the CMA, veterinary prices rose 63 percent between 2016 and 2023, well above inflation. On average, prices at large corporate chains were 16.6 percent higher than at independent practices. The review also found that many pet owners receive no written estimates, even for costly procedures.

Medication pricing emerged as one of the most controversial areas. Many owners reported paying roughly double for common medications when purchasing directly from veterinary practices compared with online retailers. The CMA also flagged concerns around cremation pricing transparency, the absence of an effective complaints route for veterinary businesses, and the limited authority of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons over corporate entities.

What the CMA wants to change

The CMA has emphasized that its focus is on veterinary businesses rather than individual clinicians. Still, the proposed remedies would directly affect day-to-day practice.

Among the key proposals:

Veterinary businesses would be required to publish comprehensive price lists, clearly disclose whether they are part of a larger corporate group, and ensure that business policies support veterinarians acting in the best interests of pets and owners.

Access to online medicines would be made easier. Vets would need to tell clients about potential savings from buying medications online, prescription fees would be capped at £16, and for frequently used medications, practices would automatically provide a written prescription.

Clear pricing information would become mandatory during consultations, including written, itemized estimates for treatments costing more than £500.

The RCVS Find a Vet website would be expanded to include pricing data drawn from mandatory practice price lists.

Finally, the CMA is urging the government to prioritize a new Veterinary Surgeons Act. This would extend regulation to veterinary businesses themselves, not just individual professionals, and give the RCVS powers to set and enforce standards for those businesses.

The RCVS has broadly welcomed measures aimed at improving transparency and pricing clarity. At the same time, it has raised red flags about proportionality, implementation costs, and unintended consequences. The college also noted that the CMA found trust and confidence in veterinarians and veterinary nurses remain very high, an important context often lost in public debate. The RCVS emphasized that many of the issues identified fall outside its current statutory remit. As a professional regulator rather than an economic or competition regulator, its authority over corporate entities is limited without legislative change.

One of the RCVS’s biggest concerns centers on medicines. Requiring veterinarians to actively inform clients about cheaper online options could lengthen consultations and ultimately increase costs. Reduced medicine sales could also push practices to raise fees elsewhere to remain financially viable. Smaller practices, in particular, may struggle with the investment required to provide written prescriptions routinely or to maintain medication stocks for urgent use. The college also pointed out a potential irony. Some large veterinary groups already operate online pharmacies, which could benefit disproportionately from the proposed changes, even with increased transparency around ownership.

The RCVS further called for stronger recognition and regulation of veterinary nurses, noting their absence from much of the CMA report. As RCVS senior vice president Linda Belton put it, transparency around costs is essential for informed consent, but so is contextualized care. Veterinary surgeons must retain autonomy in clinical judgment regardless of business structures or commercial pressures.

The British Veterinary Association has echoed many of these sentiments. The BVA supports greater transparency around ownership, standardized price lists, written estimates, and itemized bills. However, it has serious concerns about the CMA’s proposals on prescribing and selling veterinary medicines. BVA President Dr. Rob Williams has warned that asking practices to promote online pharmacies is unreasonable, particularly when some of those pharmacies are run by competing corporate groups. The proposed £16 prescription fee cap, he argues, is unlikely to reduce overall costs for clients and may undermine practice sustainability.

According to new BVA survey data, 64 percent of veterinarians believe the requirement to inform clients about cheaper online medicines would negatively affect their practice’s financial stability. The survey also suggests that many practices are already ahead of the curve, with most providing itemized bills and written estimates for higher-cost procedures. The BVA and several other veterinary organizations have submitted a joint response to the CMA, urging careful calibration of reforms to avoid unintended harm.

What comes next

The CMA is holding hearings with stakeholders through November and December, with a final decision expected in early 2026. Between now and then, veterinary professionals should expect continued debate, headlines, and lobbying. For millennial vets juggling student debt, burnout, corporate consolidation, and rising client expectations, these proposals hit close to home. At their core, the reforms raise a familiar tension. How do practices remain financially sustainable while delivering transparent, ethical, and accessible care? The answer may ultimately depend less on price lists and prescription caps, and more on whether long-awaited legislative reform finally modernizes how veterinary medicine is regulated in the U.K.

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