No matter what one says in a franchise contract, the contract does not drive the business. A franchisee can always leave. Yes, they can leave in year three on a ten year agreement. There is a cost, but the exit cost is less than remaining with a stale franchise concept. They don t have to pay all the royalties for the unexpired term of the agreement.
Damages are, at best, far less than that.
And if most decide to leave, there may be no exit cost at all with the right planning. A covenant not to compete is worthless if the business is being undermined by competition or by evolutionary changes which are not effectively responded to by the franchisor. We no longer have the luxury to think of ourselves in terms by which we self defined only a few years ago. We cannot afford to think of ourselves as printers, hamburger stores, household maintenance people, specialty gift franchises, brake or muffler or transmission shops. If we persist in such thinking, we will not attract investment that now insists upon our being sufficiently mobile to cope with the rate of market changes.