Apparatus for positioning containers houses containers (5) upright in lower and upper compartment sections (12, 13) vertically aligned with one another on a periphery of a conveyor device (10) and has a transfer wheel (31) extracting containers (5) from both lower and upper compartments (12, 13) on two levels and an intercalation wheel (32) extracting containers from the upper level of the transfer wheel (31), dropping them to a lower level over the course of one turn, and placing them again on the lower level of the transfer wheel (31) in an intercalated position between the containers (5) previously transferred to the lower level, and all the containers (5) are transferred from the lower level of the transfer wheel (31) to an output conveyor (8).