Yahoo Finance Pet owners facing hefty bills as large chains buy up vets and push up prices
The UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into the takeover of eight vet services amid fears the deal could increase costs of animal owners.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had opened an initial investigation into IVC’s takeover after concerns were raised and the group chose not to inform the regulator about the deals.
Following these investigations, the CMA found competition concerns in the supply of veterinary services for small animals – typically household pets – in 23 local areas across Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Anglesey and South Wales.
Concerns were also found in relation to the supply of out-of-hours emergency care for small animals in local areas in Norfolk and Suffolk and in the supply of equine veterinary services in local areas in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire.
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The watchdog’s investigation found that the combined businesses would account for a significant proportion of these veterinary services in each local area of concern.
Colin Raftery, senior director of mergers at the CMA, said: “The CMA continues to receive complaints about higher prices or lower quality services as a result of too many vets’ practices in the same area being under the control of a single company.”
“As a small number of large players continue to buy up independent practices and chains across the UK, we’re continuing to closely monitor their activities so that we can take action to ensure that customers in areas where vets are acquired aren’t left facing a lack of competition.”
“As living costs continue to rise and budgets are stretched even further, it’s particularly important that households across the UK shouldn’t be paying over the odds to get the right quality of treatment for their pets.”
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IVC is the largest provider of veterinary services in the UK, with over 1,000 veterinary practices providing small animal, equine and farm animal veterinary services such as surgeries, vaccinations, and microchipping.
The group now has five working days to offer legally binding proposals to the CMA to address the competition concerns identified.
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