Pet owners offered tips to cut vet bills as competition watchdog confirms probe

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Pet owners struggling with vet bills have been offered tips to save money by Britain’s competition watchdog as it confirmed it was pressing ahead with a full market investigation into the vets market amid concerns over practices. “We also remain concerned about the potential impact of sector consolidation and the incentives for large, integrated vet groups to act in ways which reduce consumer choice.” There are 16 million pet owners in the UK and the CMA estimates the vets market is worth around £5 billion a year. Dr Anna Judson, president of the British Veterinary Association, said: “Whilst fees reflect the investment needed to keep practices financially viable and open, we recognise more can be done to improve client choice and vet teams are already taking action to address the CMA’s specific concerns around transparency of fees and practice ownership.” But she added that since the CMA first announced their review last September, vet teams “have found themselves on the end of really unpleasant, often abusive behaviour”. Listed vets firm CVS Group said it will “continue to proactively support the CMA through this market investigation, as it has done consistently since the CMA first launched its market review on 7 September 2023”.