The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(16)H(14)O(4), consists of one half-mol-ecule of an essentially planar biphenyl-dicarboxylic acid ester, with the complete molecule generated by an inversion centre. The maximum deviation from a least-squares plane through all non-H atoms occurs for the peripheric methyl groups and amounts to 0.124 (2) Å. The solid represents a typical mol-ecular crystal without classical hydrogen bonds. The shortest inter-molecular contacts do not differ significantly from the sum of the van der Waals radii of the atoms involved.