Consumer contract law is the area of private law where European institutions have intervened with a greater modelling capacity, not only by harmonizing deeply the different national laws of Member States, but also in succeeding to shape a truly European law, concerning the production of specific rules for the protection of consumer rights and their proper application. The European legislator (Commission, Council, Parliament) and the European Court of Justice have put in place over the past decades an almost self-contained subsystem of law (not devoid of problems), ensuring - with the cooperation of the Member States within the European multi-level legal system - the effectiveness of a European consumer contract law, which is still the best example of European private law. The essay identifies and analyzes the general outlines and principles of this positive result of the of European integration process, from the early intervention programs for consumer protection to the current proposal for a Common European Sales Law, trying to reconstruct the complex existing European consumer contract law system