15th Oct 2025 10:02
(Alliance News) - The UK Competition & Markets Authority on Tuesday said current regulation in the pet care market is "not fit for purpose", and proposed prescription price caps likely to affect listed veterinary service providers CVS Group PLC and Pets at Home PLC.
Pets at Home was the best performer in the FTSE 250 index on Wednesday morning in London, its shares up 4.5% to 225.80 pence. CVS was up 4.9% at 1,468.00p.
The CMA has proposed 21 measures for the veterinary service industry in the UK, which the watchdog valued at approximately GBP6.3 billion.
The proposals include "better information on prices, treatments, medicines and ownership, a price cap on written prescriptions and a new comprehensive price comparison website."
The CMA also urged the UK government to prioritise a new Veterinary Surgeons Act, and give the regulator enforcement powers to establish an effective complaints system.
Vet businesses will be required to cap prescription prices at GBP16. They must tell pet owners if medication is available at a lower price online, and if that medication is likely to be required often. The business automatically must write prescriptions allowing the owner to buy it elsewhere. Treatment bills that exceed GBP500 million must be priced in writing and itemised.
Large vet groups charge nearly 17% more than their independent counterparts, according to the CMA's findings, with average prices increasing faster at practices bought by "at least 3 of those large groups." In addition, pet owners may be paying double the online price of medication and overpaying for individual cremations.
The regulator described these as industry-wide trends, with average vet prices surging 63% between 2016 and 2023.
"For a substantial part of the market as a whole, profits are much higher than they should be if competition was working well," the CMA said.
Martin Coleman, who chaired the inquiry group, noted: "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."
Findings were based on 56,000 responses, including vet industry workers comprising roughly 20% of UK vets and veterinary nurses, the CMA noted.
A final enquiry decision is due in March, with reforms to be implemented via a legally binding order, and potentially taking effect before the end of 2026.
Norfolk, England-based veterinary service provider CVS on Wednesday said it "welcomes the additional certainty that this morning's announcement brings," maintaining that it expects its business performance to continue in line with consensus.
The company has a further hearing with the CMA in December and plans to respond to the provisional decision and reform proposals "in due course", it said.
CVS added that it gave feedback on an initial 28 proposals from the CMA back in May, and was "pleased" the number of reforms was reduced to 21.
"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," CVS said.
The firm's statutory pretax profit ballooned to GBP53.0 million from GBP6.4 million in the financial year that ended June 30.
London-listed peer Pets at Home booked GBP120.6 million in pretax profit for year ended March 27, up 14% from GBP105.7 million a year prior. Last month, however, the firm lowered profit guidance following an unexpected CEO exit, noting "subdued" conditions.
By Holly Munks, Alliance News reporter
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