Competition and Markets Authority: Veterinary Services Market Investigation
- Jun 8
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 29
In May 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a market investigation into veterinary services for household pets, in response to growing concerns around pricing and transparency in the sector. As part of its evidence base, the CMA conducted a large-scale Vet Users Survey with pet owners in late 2024. These insights informed a series of working papers, including the Remedies Working Paper, which outlined potential consumer-facing remedies.
To support further development of these remedies, the CMA commissioned us to conduct qualitative research with pet owners across the UK.
We designed a structured qualitative programme to explore perspectives on the CMA’s proposed remedies and identify opportunities to refine them.
We recruited participants from this Vet Users Survey and carried out 12 online focus groups with 70 pet owners, exploring experiences of veterinary services and testing reactions to nine proposed remedies relating to practice ownership, treatments and the purchasing of medicines.
Participants were split between two topic modules, relating to the remedies they were shown:
Vet practice ownership and pricing transparency
Treatments, referrals and purchasing medicines
For each remedy, participants considered benefits and drawbacks, and suggested further refinements.
The research provided insight into how pet owners understand and respond to policy proposals, highlighting which remedies were most clearly understood, most beneficial, and where risks or unintended consequences may arise. Findings contributed to the CMA’s evidence base and outputs from the research were shared with the CMA working group to support discussions with policymakers and stakeholders as the investigation progressed.
The report was published on the CMA’s website in December 2025, which can be found here:
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