The old badge stopped meaning anything on Friday. Here is the one to look for now
What happened
On 30 October 2026, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate announced new logos for online retailers that sell veterinary medicines in the UK. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, usually shortened to VMD, is the government body that regulates animal medicines. There are two logos. Retailers in Great Britain use a logo called the VMD Registered Online Retailer logo. Retailers in Northern Ireland use something called the NI common logo. Each logo links to the VMD's Register of Online Retailers. At the same time, an older scheme ended. It was called the Accredited Internet Retailer Scheme, or AIRS, and it was voluntary. AIRS ended on 30 October 2026, its register has been removed from the VMD website, and the AIRS logo is no longer valid. That last point is the one that matters most to pet owners. If you see the old AIRS logo on a website today, it tells you nothing. It may simply be a site that has not updated yet. It may be something worse. Retailers in Great Britain that sell medicines which must be supplied by a Registered Qualified Professional have to be registered with the VMD. They must replace the AIRS logo with the new one, and on every page offering veterinary medicines they must state that they are a registered online retailer, include a statement about contacting the VMD through its online form, and link to the VMD register. Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland retailers must register with the VMD before selling such medicines online, and must display the NI common logo on every webpage where those medicines are offered.
Why this matters
Most of us buy things online without thinking hard about who is selling them. For a phone case, that is fine. For a medicine going into an animal you love, it is not. Animal medicines can be genuinely dangerous when they are wrong. The dose for a cat is not the dose for a dog, and some treatments that are safe for one species are seriously harmful to another. Flea treatments containing permethrin, for instance, are used on dogs but are toxic to cats. A counterfeit or mislabelled product removes any ability to know what you are actually giving. There is also a straightforward money angle. Pet medicines can be expensive, and that makes them attractive to people selling fakes. Websites that look professional are cheap to build. A logo is easy to copy. What is not easy to fake is being on a register that you can check independently. That is the real design of this change. The logo is not the proof. The link from the logo to the VMD register is the proof. Anyone can paste a picture onto a website; it is harder to appear on a government register that you can look at yourself. The change also ends a slightly confusing situation. AIRS was voluntary, which meant a seller without the badge was not necessarily doing anything wrong, and the badge did not map neatly onto a legal requirement. Registration is a legal requirement for the relevant medicines. Replacing a voluntary mark with one tied to registration makes the signal clearer.
What the evidence actually says
Let us be clear about what this announcement is and is not. It is a change to how registered sellers identify themselves. The VMD's notice is aimed primarily at businesses, and it sets out what they must do. It is not a warning about a particular website, and it does not report a rise in fake pet medicines. If you see coverage claiming it does, that is being added on. The practical consequence for consumers is nonetheless real: a visual marker you may have been taught to look for has been retired, and a different one has replaced it. The VMD's instructions to retailers are specific and worth knowing, because they tell you what a compliant site looks like. Businesses must confirm that the business and every website selling veterinary medicines are registered, and each website must be included in the registration details. They must tell the VMD promptly about changes. They must use the correct logo for the market where the business is established, ensure it links to the register, and test it on desktop and mobile. The VMD strongly encourages placing the logo in the website footer so it appears on every page. So if you are on a site and the logo appears only on the homepage, or does not link anywhere, that is a reasonable thing to be cautious about. One limit worth stating plainly: registration applies to medicines that must be supplied by a Registered Qualified Professional. Not every product sold for animals is a veterinary medicine. Shampoos, supplements and some grooming products sit outside this, so the absence of a logo on a bag of dog food does not mean anything is wrong. The VMD's notice did not name any officials or include quotes, and it did not set a separate compliance deadline beyond 30 October 2026, when AIRS ended. Retailers were written to about the change, and those who did not receive an email are told to contact the VMD.
Qurexa perspective
We should say at the outset that Qurexa does not supply veterinary medicines. Our work is human prescription delivery, medication adherence support and grocery delivery in Lincolnshire. We are including a note anyway, because the underlying lesson transfers almost exactly, and it is one we talk about often. The principle is this: when you buy any medicine online, the question is not 'does this website look professional'. It is 'can I verify who they are on a register I can check independently'. For animal medicines, that register is the VMD's. For human medicines in the UK, the equivalents are the General Pharmaceutical Council's register of registered pharmacies and the MHRA's list for sellers of medicines. Both are free to search. We make that point partly out of self-interest, and we would rather admit it. Services like ours depend on people trusting a delivery arrangement for their medicines, and that trust is only reasonable if it can be checked. A business that asks you to trust it without offering a way to verify it is asking for something it has not earned. So the habit worth building is small and portable: before you buy a medicine online, for a person or an animal, find the regulator's register and look the seller up. It takes about a minute, and it is the single most useful minute you will spend.
Practical advice
Here is how to buy pet medicines online sensibly. **Look for the new logo, then click it.** A genuine VMD Registered Online Retailer logo links to the VMD Register of Online Retailers. If clicking it does nothing, or takes you somewhere that is not the VMD register, stop. **Check the register yourself rather than trusting the link alone.** Search the VMD Register of Online Retailers directly for the business name. This defeats a faked link. **Treat the old AIRS logo as meaningless.** AIRS ended on 30 October 2026 and its register has been removed. A site still showing the old badge is, at best, out of date. **Expect to need a prescription for some products.** Many veterinary medicines legally require one. A site that offers to sell you a prescription-only medicine with no prescription and no questions is breaking the rules, and that tells you how much care they take with everything else. **Be suspicious of prices that are far below everyone else.** Veterinary medicines are not usually heavily discounted. A price that is dramatically cheaper is a reason to look harder, not to buy faster. **Ask your own vet.** Vets are used to being asked about buying medicines more cheaply elsewhere and most will give you a straight answer, including which products it is reasonable to shop around for. They can also write a prescription you take elsewhere. **Never give human medicines to animals.** Paracetamol and ibuprofen, both ordinary in a human medicine cabinet, can be fatal to cats and dogs. If your pet has swallowed something, ring your vet or an out-of-hours service immediately. **If something looks wrong, report it.** The VMD has an online form for queries about veterinary medicines bought online.
What to know
On 30 October 2026, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate introduced two new logos for online sellers of veterinary medicines: the VMD Registered Online Retailer logo for Great Britain, and the NI common logo for Northern Ireland. Each must link to the VMD Register of Online Retailers. The same day, the voluntary Accredited Internet Retailer Scheme ended. Its register has been removed from the VMD website and the AIRS logo is no longer valid, so it should no longer be treated as a sign of anything. Retailers selling medicines that require a Registered Qualified Professional must be registered with the VMD, must display the correct logo, must state on every relevant page that they are a registered online retailer, and must link to the register. The VMD encourages putting the logo in the website footer. Northern Ireland retailers must register before selling online under the Windsor Framework. The key habit for pet owners: do not treat the logo itself as proof. Click it, and better still, search the VMD register directly for the seller's name. A logo is easy to copy; an entry on a public register is not. Not every animal product is a veterinary medicine, so the absence of a logo on food, supplements or shampoo does not indicate a problem. Sources: GOV.UK (Veterinary Medicines Directorate), 'New logos for registered online veterinary medicine retailers', 30 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-logos-for-registered-online-veterinary-medicine-retailers; GOV.UK, Veterinary Medicines Directorate, accessed 31 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/veterinary-medicines-directorate; European Commission, 'EU logo for online sales' (background on common logos), accessed 31 October 2026, https://food.ec.europa.eu/animals/animal-health/vet-meds-med-feed/eu-logo-online-sales_en This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a vet, pharmacist, doctor or other qualified professional. If you are worried about your animal's health, or think it has swallowed something harmful, contact your vet straight away.
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