Four-lepton production from photon-induced reactions in $pp$ collisions at the LHC

The cross sections for the reaction $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow 4\ell$ in proton--proton collisions are calculated at the LHC energies. We show that the purely electroweak process $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow 4\ell$ can be studied at the LHC and can constitute a background to other processes with $4\ell$ or $2\ell$ final states.