Last Updated on June 21, 2026
For years, vets and dentists treated their prices as a private matter, revealed only once the pet was on the table or the patient was in the chair. A regulator has just decided that silence was the problem, not the solution.
The uncomfortable argument
Walk into most veterinary or dental practices and try to find out what something costs before you commit. You usually cannot. The price arrives after the examination, after the worry, after you are already emotionally invested in saying yes.
The profession has always called this discretion. Every case is different. Clinical judgement. You cannot quote without seeing the patient. All true, up to a point. But it was also a remarkably convenient way to avoid being compared, and to avoid the awkward moment of saying a number out loud.
On 24 March 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority finished a two-year investigation into the veterinary sector and concluded that this lack of upfront information was not harmless discretion at all. It was weak competition, and it was pushing prices up. The CMA is now forcing vets to publish price lists. Dental practices watching this should not feel safe. They should feel warned.
Key takeaways
- The CMA found that hidden pricing produced weak competition and higher bills across the UK veterinary sector, and ordered legally binding remedies in its final report of 24 March 2026.
- Vets will be required to publish standard price lists for defined services and common parasite treatments, and a price comparison website is part of the package.
- Prescription fees are being capped at £21, with additional medicines in the same consultation capped at £12.50 each, after the CMA found large gaps between practice and online pharmacy prices.
- The remedies are due to be in place through CMA orders and RCVS undertakings by 23 September 2026, with most taking effect in the following three to twelve months.
- Dentists are not covered by this investigation, but the logic is identical. A sector that hides prices while raising them is exactly the kind of market a regulator looks at next.
- The practices that win will publish their prices voluntarily, before they are made to, and turn transparency into a reason to choose them.
Contents
What the CMA actually ordered
This was not a strongly worded letter. The CMA used its market investigation powers, which means the remedies are legally binding, not voluntary. Here is the core of what is coming for veterinary practices.
| Remedy | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Standard price lists | Practices must publish prices for defined services and the most common parasite treatments, so owners can see costs before they walk in. |
| Prescription fee cap | A written prescription is capped at £21, with additional medicines in the same consultation capped at £12.50 each, including VAT. |
| Price comparison website | A comparison tool so pet owners can shop around, the exact thing opaque pricing used to prevent. |
| Mandatory ownership disclosure | Large groups must make clear when a practice is part of a chain rather than the independent it appears to be. |
The detail that should make every practice owner pause is why the CMA acted. It found that some medicines were 50 to 60 percent cheaper at large groups’ own online pharmacies than in their first-opinion practices. The information gap was not a side effect. It was the mechanism that let prices drift upward without challenge.
Why dentists should read this as a warning, not a relief
If you run a dental practice, it would be easy to read all this and feel relieved that it was about vets. That would be a mistake.
Look at the pattern the CMA acted on. A trusted profession. Emotional, often urgent decisions. A move from independents toward larger groups. And prices that are rarely visible until the patient is committed. Dentistry, especially private dentistry as NHS access has shrunk, ticks every one of those boxes.
No regulator has ordered dental price transparency in the same way, and this is opinion rather than prediction. But a sector that raises prices while keeping them hidden is precisely the kind of market that attracts scrutiny. The smart move is not to wait and find out. It is to do voluntarily what vets are now being forced to do, and get the goodwill for choosing to.
The advertising rules are not the obstacle some assume. You can be clear and compliant at the same time. Our guide to dental marketing and the GDC rules walks through where the real lines are.
The “every case is different” excuse
The standard defence of price secrecy is that clinical work cannot be quoted in advance. Every animal, every mouth, every case is different.
It is half true, and it is doing a lot of hiding. Yes, a complex extraction or an emergency cannot be priced to the penny on a website. But a consultation fee can. A standard vaccination can. A routine check-up, a scale and polish, a neutering, a written prescription. The common, predictable things that make up most of the day can absolutely carry a published price or a clear range.
Hiding the simple prices because the complex ones vary is not clinical caution. It is using the hard cases as cover for the easy ones.
What clients actually want
Strip away the professional framing and pet owners and patients want the same three things every other customer wants.
| What they want | What most practices give them |
|---|---|
| A rough idea of cost before they are committed | “It depends, we will let you know after the exam” |
| To not feel ambushed when the bill arrives | A figure revealed at the most emotional moment |
| To trust that they are not being quietly overcharged | No way to compare, so no way to know |
A published price does not cheapen the work. It removes the fear. And the practice that removes the fear first, in a market built on anxiety, has a genuine advantage.
The structure most practices skip
The instinct after reading this is often “we should do more marketing.” That is the wrong move. A practice with hidden prices and a confusing website does not need more traffic. It needs to fix the structure first.
Start: decide what you will show
Pick the common, predictable services and commit to publishing a price or a clear range for each. This is a positioning decision before it is a marketing one.
Build: put it where people look
Get those prices on the website, in plain language, alongside an easy way to ask. Make the routine costs findable without a phone call. This is exactly what vets are now being ordered to do, so dental practices can lead instead of follow.
Scale: only then spend
Once your pricing is clear and your site converts, then invest in being found. Spending to drive strangers to a page that hides the one thing they came to check is money poured away.
A simple, slightly uncomfortable audit
Sit with these honestly. If they make you wince, that is a structure problem, and it is cheaper to fix now than to be forced to fix later.
- Can a new client find the price of your most common service without phoning or visiting?
- If a regulator asked you to publish a standard price list next month, could you, or would you be scrambling?
- Does your pricing only appear once the client is emotionally committed?
- If a pet owner or patient compared you against the practice down the road, could they, or have you made that impossible?
The takeaway
The vets did not lose this fight because they charged too much. They lost it because they kept their customers in the dark, and a regulator decided the dark was the problem.
Dentists have a short window to choose transparency rather than have it imposed. Being trusted with clinical work is the price of entry. Being trusted with a straight answer about money is what now sets a practice apart.
Publish the price. It is the most powerful marketing most practices are too nervous to try.
Sources
Compiled by Whito in June 2026. The Competition and Markets Authority published the final report of its market investigation into veterinary services for household pets on 24 March 2026, concluding a review launched in May 2024, and found that a lack of consumer-facing information was producing weak competition and higher prices. The remedies, including mandatory standard price lists, a price comparison website, ownership disclosure, and a prescription fee cap of £21 with additional medicines capped at £12.50 each, are to be implemented through CMA orders and RCVS undertakings by 23 September 2026, with most taking effect in the following three to twelve months. The finding that some medicines were 50 to 60 percent cheaper at large groups’ own online pharmacies than in their practices is from the same final report. Commentary on the dental sector is Whito opinion, not a statement that any regulatory action against dentists is planned. This article is general information, not legal or regulatory advice.
