Not a law change, no, "merely" a change in interpretation by the relevant agencies which got convinced that the old court decision they based their rules on was

Not a law change, no, "merely" a change in interpretation by the relevant agencies which got convinced that the old court decision they based their rules on wasn't all that good and not giving enough weight to the merit argument that has been in the law the entire time. (i.e. it's quite likely someone could have successfully sued against the rules before, but understandably that's not something the industry had much appetite for)