Ending a dispute with federal safety regulators, Evenflo has agreed to recall 202,000 rear-facing infant car seats over concern that a faulty buckle could make it difficult or impossible to quickly remove a child from the seat in an emergency, according to a report from the company posted Friday on the National Highway Traffic website.

The recalled seat is the Embrace 35, which Evenflo said was “manufactured at various times from December 2011 through May 2013.” The defective buckle was made by AmSafe Commercial Products of Elkhart, Indiana, and was used by Evenflo and one of its competitors, Graco Children’s Products. Concern about the buckle’s safety has resulted in the recall of almost 6 million child restraints by the two companies.

The safety agency began investigating some Graco seats in 2012 after receiving complaints from parents who said they had trouble getting children out of their restraints, in some cases having to use a knife or scissors to cut the strap.

“What if we had a car fire or a car accident?” one mother asked in a complaint to the safety agency.

The investigation was later expanded to include products from Evenflo, which is based in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Anthony Foxx, secretary of the Department of Transportation, said in a statement Friday that the safety agency wanted to ensure that parents had peace of mind regarding child safety seats.

“Child seats serve one purpose: to keep our children safe from harm during a crash and its aftermath,” he said. “If the seat is defective, we will force a recall as we have done today.”

Evenflo said owners of the defective seats would be given a replacement buckle.