Aviva Premiership clubs have decided unanimously to amend a league regulation affecting player transfer fees.
It follows England wing Jonny May's recent move from Gloucester to their Premiership rivals Leicester.
A regulation in the Premiership code of conduct meant that May, who had a year remaining on his Gloucester contract, could move for a fixed fee.
That sum equated to one year's salary of whichever was the highest amount - his existing wages, or those at his new club.
But all 12 Premiership clubs agreed earlier this week to make a change.
The amended regulation will now see a fee negotiated between the two clubs involved, rather than any set amount being paid by the buying club.
And Press Association Sport understands that Premiership Rugby believe it will help protect clubs with younger players on lower salaries.
Speaking on Wednesday about the May move, Gloucester rugby director David Humphreys said: "The reality now is that rugby is moving towards football.
"In effect, Jonny came in and handed in a transfer request. He did it and explained it was for personal reasons and for some rugby reasons.
"We have the view, Johan (Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann) and I, that we only want players playing for Gloucester who want to be here.
"We feel with the transfer fee and the addition of Ed Slater (from Leicester) to our squad, we will be in a stronger position going into next season.
"Jonny has been an outstanding player for Gloucester for many years, and the X-factor he brings will be missed, no question.
"But if you look back at the last couple of seasons, we haven't lost games because we couldn't score tries - we have been scoring lots of tries - our big issue has been around making sure we are competitive up-front.
"When Jonny had decided he wanted to leave, we sat down as a management team and wanted to make sure we recruited where we needed to most."
Source: PA
