The recent judgment in Case C-273/18 deals with the issue of abusive practices in the framework of chain transactions. In particular the role of the intermediaries in the chain and the issue of whether, in order for an abusive practice to exist, it is necessary that there is an undue tax advantage obtained by any of the parties that intervene in the chain, is addressed here by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The CJEU has reiterated its ‘classical’ case law about the right to deduct and the existence of abusive practices and has made it clear that where the tax authorities have adduced no evidence demonstrating the existence of one such practice, the taxable person cannot be refused the right of a deduction. This issue of the chain transactions has been addressed recently also by the EU legislator through Council Directive (EU) 2018/1910, which introduces a new Article 36a of the VAT Directive dealing with chain transactions for the first time. The new rule that applies as of 1 January 2020 covers chain transactions involving an intra-Community transport of goods and provides unambiguous rules regarding the allocation of the transport to one of the supplies.