(Z)-2,3-Di­chloro-1,4-bis­(4-chloro­phen­yl)but-2-ene-1,4-dione

The title compound, C₁₆H₈Cl₄O₂, crystallizes with two independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. Both mol­ecules have a Z conformation around the central double bond and they show significantly different C—C—C—O torsion angles between the aromatic ring and the carbonyl group [30.1 (7) and 3.9 (7)° in one molecule and 23.5 (7) and 9.3 (8)° in the other]. The crystal packing shows short halogen Cl...O [3.003 (5) and 3.246 (4) Å] and Cl...Cl [3.452 (2) Å] contacts and aromatic C—H...Cl and C—H...O inter­actions link the molecules, resulting in chains propogating along [100]. The crystal structure also features π–π stacking inter­actions between aromatic units of the two independent mol­ecules, with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.9264 (6) Å.