Do airliners have to obey speed limits in the sky?

From Sonia George

There are speed limits on airliners, but these vary depending on how high and where they are flying. For example, if flying under 3,000 metres airliners are often limited to 463 kilometres per hour.

Speed limits around busy airports are lower. In some places, like flying at high altitude over the ocean, there is no legal speed limit, but the airliner’s manufacturer will have set a maximum speed that the pilot is forbidden to exceed to avoid damaging the aircraft.

Answered by Tom Lean for Brain Dump in How It Works issue 110 

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