UK veterinary businesses caring for household pets must meet the CMA’s requirements for clearer prices, ownership information, treatment costs, medicines and complaints. The Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026 introduces these changes in phases, with different deadlines for small and large businesses. Read the CMA’s implementation guidance.
PetsApp helps UK veterinary practices prepare through a free CMA compliance checklist, a free veterinary price-list tool, booking and reminder workflows, wellness plan management and consultation documentation. Your practice remains responsible for checking its obligations and the information it publishes.
Start with the timetable below, then use the practical guides to review each part of your client journey.
What is the CMA changing for veterinary practices?
The CMA investigates how markets work for consumers. Its investigation into veterinary services for household pets led to a final report in March 2026 and a legally binding Order in September 2026. The reforms aim to improve owners’ ability to compare providers and understand their choices. See the CMA’s investigation and implementation updates.
The changes include ownership and practice information, published prices, pet care plans, estimates and bills, medicines, out-of-hours arrangements, cremation options and complaints. The RCVS has a role in supporting implementation and monitoring compliance. Read the Order and supporting documents.
For a practice manager, that means looking beyond a single webpage. An owner may find your prices online, book by telephone, receive a confirmation by text and discuss a wellness plan at reception. Each step needs to make sense alongside the others.
When do UK practices need to comply?
The timetable is phased. The CMA provides separate guides for small businesses with 14 or fewer practices and large businesses with 15 or more. Check your classification against the Order, including any relevant group or network arrangements.
The following are selected milestones for common practice workflows. These are the dates from which the requirements apply, taking account of the Order’s next-working-day rule:
| Requirements | Large businesses | Small businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Practice information, price lists, parasiticide price lists and pet care plans | 23 December 2026 | 23 March 2027 |
| Ownership information and complaints processes, logs and mediation | 23 March 2027 | 23 March 2027 |
| Written estimates, itemised bills and several medicines information requirements | 23 June 2027 | 23 September 2027 |
| Prescription fee caps | 23 March 2027 | 23 September 2027 |
Some out-of-hours contract measures already apply. Other duties, including Find a Vet submissions, have their own timing. Use PetsApp’s free CMA compliance checklist to organise your practice’s next steps.
Timetable sources: the CMA’s small-business guide and large-business guide.
Start with prices owners can find and understand
Article 7 covers publishing the standard price list and providing the consultation price and a price-list link in the initial digital booking confirmation. Article 8 separately covers commonly sold parasiticide prices. See the CMA’s explanatory note.
Start by checking the information for the services you offer. Then follow an owner’s journey from the homepage to the relevant clinic’s prices. Ask reception to use the same list when answering a typical question about a consultation fee.
PetsApp’s price-list tools start with the 36 Schedule 1 items and support additional custom items. You can set shared prices for a group and override them for individual clinics. Prices can be entered manually or linked to supported PMS catalogue items and wellness plans.
The price list is available now, free and self-service. Supported PMS price connections include Merlin, Provet, ezVetPro and Teleos.
The pricing dashboard lets your team manage group prices and clinic overrides. See the full public list example in our price-list guide.
That gives your team a way to maintain clinic differences without recreating every shared price from scratch. Review the public result when you set it up, especially where a service has several variants or components.
Explore the free PetsApp price list or read our practical price-list guide.
Review booking confirmations and reminders together
An owner should be able to open an appointment message and understand what has been booked. A request awaiting acceptance needs different wording from a confirmed consultation.
PetsApp supports online booking and appointment reminders. Review the actual messages in each route your practice uses, including accepted requests and appointments booked by reception. If a partner sends a confirmation, include that message in the review too.
Check the clinic, appointment type and price information together. Follow the price-list link on a phone without signing in. Then compare the reminder with the initial confirmation so the owner receives a consistent explanation.
Medicines information needs attention here too: Article 14 includes standardised prescription wording in electronic consultation confirmations and reminders. Add that to your template review for the relevant implementation phase. Read the explanatory note’s medicines guidance.
Our booking confirmation and reminder guide includes a practical journey checklist.
Make wellness plans easy to assess
Article 9 covers plan inclusions, quantities, timeframes, monthly and annual prices, standalone prices, cancellation terms, savings claims and reminders before automatic annual renewal. See Article 9 of the Order.
For owners, a useful explanation answers three questions: what does my pet receive, what will I pay and what happens next year?
PetsApp’s wellness plan tools let your team define plans and entitlements, set prices and renewal periods, provide terms and manage members. Use those settings alongside your website copy and reception guidance so everyone is describing the same offer.
When reviewing a savings statement, keep the underlying comparison with the wording it supports. A change to a standalone fee is a prompt to revisit any plan comparison using that fee. A benefit used once in a pet’s lifetime also deserves a closer look before it appears in a recurring annual savings headline.
Read our wellness plan transparency guide for a more detailed review process.
Support clear conversations during and after the consultation
The reforms also address written estimates for higher-cost treatment and itemised bills. Those need their own practice processes under Articles 11 and 12. A booking fee or consultation summary serves a different purpose. Read the relevant provisions in the Order.
PetsApp Scribe can help your team turn a consultation into notes and a client-friendly summary, ready for review and editing. Its templates include a Billing Checklist that highlights billable items mentioned in the conversation and flags details to confirm.
Use that support to check the record and explain next steps. Your team still needs to review clinical and financial details and prepare the appropriate estimate or bill through your agreed workflow.
Turn the requirements into a manageable practice plan
Give each area an owner and a review date. A short shared plan can make the work easier to coordinate:
- Map your obligations. Start with PetsApp’s free CMA checklist and identify the services and deadlines that apply to your practice.
- Review public information. Work through your practice details, prices, plan pages and complaints information.
- Test client journeys. Read received messages for a new booking, a changed appointment and a plan renewal.
- Agree the clinical handovers. Establish who prepares estimates, explains options, checks bills and provides medicines information.
- Keep evidence and revisit changes. Retain approved examples and review the affected information whenever fees, services or terms change.
Bring reception, clinical colleagues and the person responsible for your website into the same review. Each sees a different part of the owner’s experience, and each can spot gaps the others might miss.
How PetsApp can help your practice
PetsApp is veterinary client communication and practice software. For UK teams working on CMA compliance, these tools support specific parts of the process:
| Practice task | PetsApp support | What your team checks |
|---|---|---|
| Organise a readiness review | Free CMA checklist | Which requirements apply to your business and who owns each action |
| Publish clinic prices | Free price-list tool with Schedule 1 items, group defaults, clinic overrides and supported PMS price sources | Service coverage, clinic mapping and the public prices |
| Review appointment communications | Online booking, reminders and client messaging | The received confirmation and reminder, including required pricing and medicines information |
| Explain wellness plans | Plan configuration and member management | Inclusions, costs, comparisons, terms and renewal communications |
| Document consultation discussions | Scribe notes, client summaries and Billing Checklist | Accuracy and the separate estimate or billing process |
These tools help your team organise and communicate information. They do not replace clinical judgement, practice policies or a review against the full CMA Order.
Common questions about CMA compliance for vets
Does CMA compliance apply to independent veterinary practices?
Yes, independent practices can fall within the Order. The CMA’s guides distinguish small and large veterinary businesses by practice count, rather than simply by independent or corporate branding. Check the definitions and your group or network arrangements in the CMA’s small-business guide.
Is a published price list enough to meet the CMA requirements?
A price list addresses one part of a wider set of obligations. Your review also needs to cover applicable requirements for practice and ownership information, pet care plans, medicines, estimates, bills, complaints and other services. Use the full Order to establish your scope.
Can I get a free CMA compliance checklist for my practice?
PetsApp provides a free CMA compliance checklist for UK veterinary practices. Use it to organise your review alongside the official CMA guidance. For publishing prices, explore PetsApp’s free, self-service price-list tool.
Book a demo to walk through your practice’s setup, or explore the free price list as a first step.
Reviewed against CMA publications on 9 November 2026. This overview highlights common workflows rather than every obligation. Practices should use the full Order and explanatory note to confirm their requirements; software supports the work and does not certify compliance.
