Sky High Vet Bills - CMA Launches Formal Probe

Big competition policy news! The CMA is launching a formal investigation after an initial review of the UK vets market raised multiple concerns. There are sixteen million pet owners in the UK and the CMA believes that the increasing concentration of the industry in the hands of six leading veterinary groups is leading to diminished choice and higher prices.

Graham Watson's insight:

The initial investigation of the veterinary sector, has concluded that there's a need for a full report into the sector because of a lack of price transparency and concerns that customers have been over-charged.

It's interesting to note that 80% of vets don't have any prices on display, and another thing that might imply exploitation of consumers is the changing nature of the sector. Whereas 89% of vets were independent in 2013, 8 years later that's only 45%, with over half the sector owned by six large corporate chains.