It's always been there AFAIK. This is from their current policy document which you must agree to when you start applying for a free certificate:
> Class 1 certificates are limited to client and server
certificates, whereas the later is restricted in its usage for non-commercial purpose only. Subscribers MUST upgrade to Class 2 or higher level for any domain and site of commercial nature
Class 1 is "StartSSL Free", and Class 2 is "StartSSL Verified" which costs $59.90.