Abstract: An apparatus for opening bags of the synthetic-resin foil type in which the bags are successively drawn from a horizontal magazine by a movable suction member displaceable horizontally, are brought into the proximity of a further suction member raised between the bag and the magazine and are then drawn open between the suction members. The bag is then laterally engaged by a pair of guide-pincer members and guided thereby onto the clamping pincers of a carriage to be shifted to a filling station along the transport path of this carriage.