The day before the Senate judiciary committee began to debate legislation to toughen US competition law for large technology companies, Republican senator Ted Cruz spent 40 minutes on the phone with Apple chief executive Tim Cook.

Cruz said Cook warned him the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which is aimed at stopping large technology companies giving preferential treatment to their own products, might make it impossible for Apple to allow customers to opt out of being tracked by their apps.

The next day Cruz, a conservative Republican known for championing the free market, voted for the bill, which easily passed by a vote of 16 to 6. He even suggested toughening it by allowing private citizens to sue companies that did not comply.

If Big Tech executives needed an indication of their standing on Capitol Hill, and how seriously they should take the prospect of much stricter regulation, they had it.

“This is a huge deal,” said Matt Stoller, director of research at the progressive American Economic Liberties Project, which campaigned in favour of the bill. “We did not expect to get 16 votes — this is a big political signal.”

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Even if it does not pass, Thursday’s vote has achieved two significant things, say the bill’s supporters. First, it has given a signal to the judiciary of Congress’s concern about the enforcement of existing competition laws.

“The Senate is telling judges they don’t like the way they have interpreted antitrust law when it come to Big Tech, and judges will hear that,” said Stoller.

Second, it has punctured the aura of invincibility around Big Tech’s army of corporate lobbyists in Washington.