The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a judge did not have the authority to compel Yelp to reveal the identities of anonymous users who panned an Alexandria carpet-cleaning company in a case closely watched by free-speech advocates and businesses alike.

The decision sidestepped the thorny conflict at the heart of the case: Where do the First Amendment rights of Internet users to speak anonymously end and the rights of a company to defend its reputation begin?

Instead, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that lower courts in the state did not have jurisdiction over Yelp because the company was located in California and the data that Hadeed Carpet Cleaning sought was stored in that state.

Paul Alan Levy, a Public Citizen lawyer representing Yelp, welcomed the ruling, saying ­Hadeed would have to pursue the reviewers’ identities in California courts, which set a higher bar for revealing the identities of people making anonymous speech.

“If Hadeed turns to California courts to learn the identities of its critics, those courts will require it to show evidence to meet the well-accepted First Amendment test for identifying anonymous speakers,” Levy wrote in a statement.

“And so far, Hadeed has not come close to providing such evidence.”