Key takeaway: The UK just wrapped the most extensive veterinary market investigation ever conducted, and the findings led to legally binding transparency reforms. The same consolidation dynamics are already present in the US. Here’s what the data says, what we’re seeing across the 600+ independent practices we work with, and why this is worth paying attention to.

What did the UK’s veterinary market investigation find?

We spend a lot of time talking with independent practices about pricing, transparency, and how to compete in a market that’s consolidating fast. So when the UK government published the results of a two-and-a-half-year, 56,000-response investigation into veterinary services, and the findings mapped almost exactly to the conversations we’re already having, we wanted to share it.

The short version: UK pet owners don’t have the information they need to make decisions about veterinary care. When the investigation started, only 16% of UK practices had any prices on their websites. Fewer than half of pet owners got pricing information before non-routine treatment. And fewer than half of pet owners at corporate-owned practices even knew their practice was part of a larger group. The local name stayed on the building. The ownership changed behind it.

On the financial side, UK vet prices rose 63% between 2016 and 2023, roughly double general inflation. Corporate-owned practices charged an average of 18.3% more than independents for comparable services. The CMA estimates weak competition cost UK pet owners about £1 billion over five years.

So the CMA is doing something about it. Legally binding reforms start before Christmas 2026: mandatory price lists on websites, corporate ownership disclosure, written estimates for treatments over £500, prescription fee caps, and a government-backed comparison tool. These apply to all UK practices, with corporate groups on the shortest timeline.

Full CMA report here.

Why does a UK investigation matter for US practices?

This is the key question: the CMA’s reforms don’t apply here, and the UK and US markets aren’t identical. But the forces that triggered this investigation are ones we hear about from practices we work with every week.

The same private equity firms operate in both countries. The same consolidation playbook (acquire independent practices, keep the local branding, centralize everything else) is running on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, six corporate groups now own over 60% of all practices (up from 10% in 2013). The US isn’t there yet, but the trajectory looks similar. Corporate ownership has gone from under 10% a decade ago to 25-30% today, and those consolidators account for roughly half of all companion animal revenue. In specialty and emergency care, it’s already 75-80%.

That pace is picking up. 2025 saw 532 pet care M&A transactions in the US alone, a 41% increase over the prior year. What’s more, US regulators are noticing. The FTC has required clinic divestitures from major consolidators, and New York introduced the first state-level bill requiring AG review of veterinary practice acquisitionsIn 2025 alone, seven states passed new healthcare transaction oversight laws. Meanwhile, pet owners aren’t waiting for regulations to catch up to their needs: 81% of surveyed US veterinarians reported clients were more price-sensitive in 2025 than the year before. Visits declined about 3% while revenue grew just 2.5%, almost entirely from price increases, not volume.

To be clear: we’re not predicting that the US launches its own version of the veterinary investigation anytime soon. But the underlying dynamics (consolidation, price sensitivity, a growing expectation of transparency) are already here. The CMA report is a useful look at where those dynamics lead when they go unaddressed.

Does pricing transparency actually help veterinary practices?

This is one of the most common conversations we have with both new and existing Digital Empathy customers. The concern is almost universal: if I publish my prices, won’t pet owners just shop for the cheapest option? Doesn’t this turn into a race to the bottom?

We’ve heard this from dozens of practice owners over the the past year whenever we bring up the topic of price transparency. We get it: it’s a vulnerable thing to put your pricing out there. But the data (both the CMA’s and our own DE data) points in a different direction.

The CMA found that pricing opacity in the UK actually benefits large corporate groups, which were able to charge 18.3% more than independents without pet owners having any way to compare. When pricing is visible, independents tend to look good. They’re often the better value, and pet owners are smart enough to recognize that. Additionally, we’re seeing the same thing across the independent practice websites we manage here in the US. Visitors who view a pricing page convert at 2.6 times the rate of visitors who don’t (12.45% vs 4.78%). That conversion includes key actions like booking appointments, submitting contact forms, and clicking to call the practice.

There’s a behavioral shift worth noting, too. Website visitors who see pricing information book appointments at nearly four times the rate they pick up the phone. Visitors who don’t see pricing do the opposite: they call more than they book. Pricing information seems to move people from “let me call and ask how much this costs” to “I’m ready to schedule.” That means fewer phone calls about cost and more appointments on the books.

(To be transparent for our data-minded audience: this is correlation, not causation. Visitors who seek out pricing may already be further along in their decision. But across 130,000+ sessions over 90 days, the signal is consistent enough to pay attention to.)

Independence as a differentiator

Digital Empathy works exclusively with independent practices, so we obviously have a strong point of view here that independents can be well-positioned to earn the hearts and minds of pet owners. But the CMA data backs it up: among UK pet owners who said ownership matters to them when choosing a practice, 68% preferred independent. The problem is that fewer than half could actually identify whether their current practice was independently owned or corporate.

We see this in the US, too. Corporate groups keep the original practice name on the door, and pet owners have no idea the ownership changed. That gap between preference and awareness is a real opportunity. Pet owners who care about independence are already looking for that information—they just can’t always find it.

We’re keeping our eye on this

We don’t know exactly how this plays out in the US over the coming years. But the CMA report is the most comprehensive look at veterinary market dynamics anyone has produced, and the patterns it describes aren’t limited to the UK. These are conversations we’re already having with practices every day. The CMA just put a massive dataset behind them.

If any of this is raising questions about your own practice, we’d love to dig into it with you. Whether it’s how to think about pricing on your site, how to communicate your independent ownership, or what the transparency conversation looks like for your specific situation, we’re here to help think through how to set your veterinary practice up for success.

Digital Empathy is a tech-forward growth partner for independent veterinary practices. Spotlight is our pre-visit intake tool, built on the belief that exceptional medicine starts with exceptional context. See how it works →