Vets could be made to publish price lists

'Major reforms' proposed to help pet owners save cash

- By Anna Wise

VETS may be forced to publish price lists under changes proposed by the competition watchdog.

Pet owners could be overpaying for medicines and are not being given enough information about the costs of treatments, the Competition and Markets Authority found.

The regulator has been investigating the £6.3billion veterinary services market over concerns about how it is run. It found consumers are not benefiting from strong competition between vet businesses.

In particular, pet owners may be paying twice as much for medicines from practices compared with buying online, it was said.