No, it was not. The law, which has been on the books for a long time in New Jersey, prohibited direct sales.
It was possible to read part of the law as being written in a way that would not apply to Tesla, but would apply to nearly all other current makers. (I mentioned this in a Reddit discussion, and someone pointed out that another part of New Jersey law made it so that reading was clearly not correct, and the law prohibiting other makers from selling direct did pretty clearly cover Tesla).
The new rule is basically clarifying that yes, the current law does indeed also apply to Tesla, and anyone who issued any permits or otherwise had approved Tesla's sales was in error.
