Apple agreed to pay $18 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it intentionally sabotaged the FaceTime video and audio calling app on nearly 3.6 million iPhones.

The settlement proposal, filed by the tech company in a California federal court, covers iPhones running on iOS 6 or earlier.

Consumers leading the class action claimed Apple intentionally slowed the performance of older iPhones in an attempt to push users into upgrading to iOS 7 or stop using FaceTime.

This, the lawsuit claimed, stemmed from a patent spat between Apple and VirnetX covering a data transfer relay technology, which the iPhone maker allegedly stopped using in the later versions of its operating system to duck licensing fees.

Apple’s proposal will see 90 per cent of the class action members receive compensation of around $3 each.

In February, Apple lost its latest bid to overturn a ruling in favour of VirnetX, with the vendor facing a financial penalty of $439.7 million as a result.