CMA Price List Rules for Vets: Where and How to Display Prices

What the CMA will require on your price list

Order made; one of the first pet-owner-facing deadlines. The CMA made the Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026 on 22 September 2026, and it came into force the next day. Under Article 3 of the Order the price-list rules have a compliance date of 22 December 2026 for larger businesses (15 or more first-opinion practices and/or out-of-hours centres) and 22 March 2027 for smaller ones, and practices must comply from the next working day after that date. Two dates in the Order come sooner: the out-of-hours contract notice cap in Articles 19(4) and 19(5)(a)-(b) has applied since 23 September 2026, and under Article 26 every business operating a practice when the Order came into force must send the RCVS its business and site contact details by 30 November 2026, to the extent it has not already done so under the separate Funding Order. The month-by-month CMA timeline covers both.

The CMA Order requires your practice to publish a standard price list for a defined set of 36 services, products and procedures. It has to appear in two places: on your website, no more than one click from the homepage, and at the practice, in the reception or waiting area. The aim is that a pet owner can compare prices easily, before they are committed to a practice, rather than discovering costs at the point of treatment.

This guide covers what goes on the list, exactly where the Order expects it to appear, and how to keep it compliant once it is up. The price list is one duty among several — the CMA vet rules guide maps the rest of the Order on one page.

What has to be on the list

Article 7 of the Order defines the price list as the prices a practice charges for each item on "the list of defined services, products, treatments and procedures at Schedule 1 (the Price List Schedule)" that it offers. Schedule 1 sets out 36 items in five groups:

• Consultation and preventative care (12) — first, repeat, out-of-hours and nurse consultations, nail clipping, anal gland expression, microchipping, animal health certificate, primary and booster vaccinations, kennel cough vaccination, and pet care plans (monthly cost).
• Prescription, dispensing and administration (6) — the prescription fee, the fee for additional items prescribed at the same time, the repeat prescription fee, the dispensing fee, the injection administration fee, and insurance administration fees.
• Surgeries and treatments (6) — dental assessment, castration, traditional and keyhole spay, physiotherapy and laser therapy sessions.
• Diagnostics and laboratory tests (9) — X-ray, two ultrasound types, two cytology tests, basic urine screen, CT and MRI per body part, and a pre-surgical blood test.
• End-of-life care (3) — euthanasia, and communal and individual cremation.

The Order also controls how the list is presented. Items must use the Schedule 1 names rather than free text. Prices must include VAT, be up to date and reflect what owners are typically charged. Where a price varies by animal, it must be shown for cats and five dog weight bands. For dental assessments, castrations and spays, checkboxes must show which of seven components (such as general anaesthesia and post-operative checks) are included. The list must also say that prices relate to a typical case and may rise in complex ones. Parasiticides go on a separate price list under Article 8.

Where it has to appear

This is where the Order is unusually specific, and where a price list that technically exists can still fail.

• On your website, one click from the homepage. Article 7(4) requires the list to be "accessible in a maximum of one click away from the homepage of the website", on a page that "uses the terms ‘price’, ‘prices’, ‘pricing’ or ‘fees’ in page navigation information and page metadata." A price page buried two or three clicks deep, or labelled "Our services", does not satisfy this.
• Findable without excessive scrolling. The CMA's earlier guidance page, since replaced, described this as "without scrolling". The Order itself does not use those words. Its Explanatory Note treats scrolling as part of the "Clear and Prominent" test: a visitor should be able to reach the price list page "without, for example, needing to scroll beyond what may be considered a reasonable amount." The practical rule is the same: put the link where a visitor sees it straight away.
• At the practice. Article 7(3)(b) requires the list to be available at each practice's premises, and Article 4(5) requires information of this kind to be "displayed, provided or made available in the reception or waiting area", available to visitors without an appointment. A poster, leaflet, noticeboard or digital screen all count.
• In booking confirmations. Article 7(3)(c) adds a step many practices will miss. The first digital message confirming a consultation booking must include the price of that consultation and a link to the online price list.

The website and in-practice lists have to match. A website list and an in-practice list that show different prices is worse than having one, because it undermines the comparability the reform is built on.

The timing: who has to do this, and when

The runway is short — three months after the Order was made for larger businesses, six months for smaller ones — which is why it is worth knowing precisely. The Order's Article 3 table gives:

Your practice	Order compliance date (Article 3)
15 or more FOPs and/or out-of-hours centres ("Large Veterinary Business")	22 December 2026
Fewer than 15 FOPs and/or out-of-hours centres ("Small Veterinary Business")	22 March 2027

The same dates apply to the other Part 2 price-information duties: basic practice information (Article 6), the parasiticide price list (Article 8) and pet care plan information (Article 9). Ownership disclosure (Article 5) is the exception, at 22 March 2027 for every size. Two consequences worth planning around:

• Larger groups go first, and clients will notice. The CMA has said customers of practices in larger chains can expect changes, including standard price lists, before Christmas 2026. That is the 22 December 2026 compliance date showing up on the high street.
• You will be compared before your own deadline. A smaller independent practice has until 22 March 2027, but from late December 2026 pet owners will be able to compare published prices at the chains nearby. Getting an initial version up early, even an imperfect one, is a defensible commercial position as much as a compliance one.

The CMA preparation timeline sets out how the staggered deadlines work across the rest of the package.

Keeping the list compliant

A price list is not a one-off task — it is a living document with a maintenance obligation:

1. Assign an owner. One named person responsible for keeping the website and in-practice lists accurate and matched.
2. Update before you charge. Article 7(5) requires the list to be updated before any revised price is charged to pet owners. When a listed price changes, the website and the poster both need updating first.
3. Keep the placement compliant. A website redesign that pushes the price page deeper than one click, or renames it so "price" or "fees" drops out of the navigation, breaks compliance even if the prices are correct. Re-check placement after any site change.
4. Document it in an SOP. Fold price-list maintenance into your SOP framework so the cadence and ownership survive staff changes.
5. Include the prescription fee. Your written-prescription fee is a Schedule 1 item, and it must sit within the veterinary prescription fee caps the Order sets.

Common gaps to close

• Price page too deep. "We have a prices page" is not enough if it is more than one click from the homepage, or hard to find without a lot of scrolling.
• Free-text item names. A list that calls a service something other than its Schedule 1 name does not meet the Order's naming rule, even if the price is right.
• Website and in-practice lists drift apart. Two versions showing different figures defeats the purpose and is easy for a client to spot.
• "Price on consultation" for listable services. Schedule 1 items should carry the typical price, not a placeholder that defeats comparison.
• No maintenance process. A list that was accurate at launch and never updated becomes a published inaccuracy.

How this fits the wider CMA package

The published price list is one of several CMA remedies — written estimates, prescription fee caps, ownership disclosure, and complaints handling are all in the same Order. The CMA written estimate £500 rule covers the estimate threshold, and the CMA compliance self-assessment tool flags which remedies your practice still has open. Run as streams within your clinical governance framework, the package stays current rather than drifting back out of compliance after launch — and it sits alongside the rest of your non-clinical compliance workload.

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Reviewed 26 October 2026. The CMA made the Veterinary Services Market Investigation Order 2026 on 22 September 2026 and it came into force on 23 September 2026. The service list, placement rules and compliance dates above are taken from the Order and its Schedule 1, not from the draft consulted on in July and August 2026. This is general compliance information, not legal advice. Verify the current position against the Order and its Explanatory Note and the CMA's guide for small veterinary businesses (14 or fewer practices) or large ones (15 or more), and consult your defence body for practice-specific advice.