Just looked at it briefly, but it seems to be about the European test cycle not covering all driving conditions -- to my knowledge, this is something that has been the case for a LONG time, and all manufacturers as well as regulators are well aware of this. Vehicles are designed to conform to the specific standards, and the test procedure is just as much a part of the standard as the actual measurement at the pipe.

US VW scandal is about going way further than just designing the vehicle to satisfy a specific test -- it actively detects that it is being tested and adjusts operation. It's one thing to, say, not try to optimize emissions while towing another vehicle if the standard does not measure emissions during towing, and quite another to cheat on a test that does.