Passat 2.0 TDI BlueMotion Tech - dampers weeping

[Alexxtreme]

During my last MOT I was told that my 2011 Passat estate that 3 of the 4 dampers are weeping and would need replacing sometime soon and probably before the next MOT.
The car has stupidly hard suspension, lowish profile tyres that run at 38psi.
It has "only" done 140k miles and have other cars that have gone past and not had this problem.. if fact I have not heard of any other modern car with shocks failing like this?
Has anyone else had their fail?
Are they expensive to replace?
I have seen the shocks themselves are not that expensive...